Beginner's Luck
by xjellytotlubz
Summary: Meet Kayleigh Slovenia, a heartbroken teenager who's on the verge on turning 16. With nothing else in mind, she has a goal of being invisible and hiding away from life. But there's a turning point in her life as she meets new boy band, McFly. Kayleigh takes a new route in her life, learning more about herself, her friends, family and those she loves. 1st novel of Luck trilogy
1. Prologue

**Eastbourne**

**Kayleigh Slovenia**

**March – April 2004**

_It's not easy being heartbroken by the one you truly loved. You always have that terrible, empty feeling in your stomach and it makes you feel like you don't want anything to do with boys at all and you take an immediate dislike to them. Well, that's how I was feeling. My boyfriend, James Daniels, dumped me. From after going out for about three months, he thought that it was time we should go our separate ways. I accepted it straight away. I thought that it was a good idea as we had our GCSE exams coming up in a few months and we both needed some time and space to breathe … until I got home and realised what had happened. I'd lost him. I really did believe that he was my first love. My mother, Zoe, always told me that the 'popular' boys at my age were always the cheaters. She wasn't wrong. James was the populist boy at school._

_When I got home, my family weren't much help at all. Mum was too busy sorting out our garden; dad was chatting away with his friend from work, and as for my siblings, they wouldn't care._

_I have four siblings. When my parents got married, they were planning on having two children: a boy and a girl. However, they ended up having five children; two twin daughters and then three years later, they had triplets; all boys._

_My twin sister, Tracie, and I never got on well. We were close friends when we were young but that never lasted long … especially after how I used to be. Tracie was what I liked to call a 'slut' with shoulder length, beach blonde hair. She always wore the tightest tops that did not fit her so her breasts were almost falling out, and she coated her face in a thick layer of orange foundation and mascara. There were four other girls at school just like her whom she called her 'girlfriends'._

_My mother seemed so fed up with her life after trying to look after my three baby brothers when they were about eighteen months old, so I had to take over. None of my brothers were at all that thankful that I changed their nappies every day. Except Liam. He thanked me. Lovely Little Liam I called him. He was the only person in our household who listened to me and cheered me up in tough times. However sometimes his two brothers, Screaming Lord Thomas and Headband Dan tried to make him a bad person. I gave my three brothers different nick names because there was something unique about them. I named Thomas 'Screaming Lord Thomas' because he was constantly screaming and shouting all day long. Whenever they played football in the back garden, I could hear him screaming while running after the ball. And then 'Headband Dan' was named that because everyday he wore either a blue or white sweatband around his forehead. The sportiest person out of the family, he went jogging every evening after school and before dinner time. Even though my three brothers were only thirteen years old, Tracie and I got bullied by them. Except Liam. He always tried to stop them but it never made any difference. I told my parents about Dan and Thomas constantly hitting me but they did fuck all about it. However, Tracie seemed to be the one who got bullied the most._

_The only two people who really understood me were my two best friends: Lisa Levett and Angie Gibson. Lisa was more of the bossy one out of the three of us and always seemed to know exactly what's right, what's wrong and what we should and should not do. She also overused sarcasm, but as I knew her since primary school, I didn't even notice it after a while. I met Angie when I first started secondary school in year seven. She was easier to talk to as she didn't tell me all the time that I did the wrong thing; unlike Lisa. Nevertheless, they were my two closet friends. However, their obsession with boy bands was something I disliked about them as I had a strong loathing towards boy bands._

_Trying to get over heartbreak isn't at all that easy. Going back to school and seeing James again wasn't easy either. Not that it was going to be any different or that anyone at school would've notice me._

"_Hey, who's that ginger girl with James?"_

"_Is she new? I've never seen her before."_

"_Oh isn't she James' girlfriend? What's her name? Karla or something?"_

_That's what I heard all the time at school. It wasn't easy not being no one as I didn't even know who I was myself. Nobody knew who I was; it was like being a carpet where people would rub the mud off their shoes on me without a care in the world. Sometimes I wished that I could be invisible and hide away from the world forever._


	2. Chapter 1

**Sunday 23rd March 2004**

I woke up Sunday morning feeling rather depressed. The sun was shining through my bedroom window but I didn't feel at all that happy. I was trying to blank my mind and forget about James, but I couldn't stop thinking about him. He'd hurt me and had broken my heart, yet I was longing to make him change his mind. I wanted him to turn back to me and tell me that he had made a mistake and wanted me to be his girlfriend again. I closed my eyes and started to think about the night I slept with him a few weeks back. The night I lost my virginity. It was like watching a film in my head, only in slow motion, analysing everything we did.

It wasn't long till I could hear my mum calling my name from downstairs. I opened my eyes and glanced at a photo of me and James sat on Eastbourne's stony beach, in a wooden photo frame on my bedside table.

Mum called my name once again so I threw my bed covers off and climbed out of bed. The four other beds beside mine were empty. My siblings were already awake. Running my fingers through my tangled red hair, I slowly walked over to the bathroom to have a hot shower.

"Good morning my little muffin." Mum said cheerfully and kissed me on the cheek once I got downstairs to the kitchen. Her long platinum blonde hair was neatly draped over one shoulder. I looked at my three brothers who were all eating cereal at the table. They paused to look up at me before exchanging glances and going back to eating again. Their dirty blonde hair was looking rather ruffled. They all looked the same from the back. I ignored them and turned to mum who was handing me a bag full of groceries.

"Now you will be good when visiting your uncle wont you?" Mum asked as I got a big bottle of Sunny D out of the fridge.

"Yeah sure, whatever." I mumbled and walked out the kitchen to the front door.

"Oh, Kayleigh, darling," Mum called after me. "Have a good morning with Lisa and Angie."

I hesitated for a moment. I knew that my mum wanted to ask me about James but she wouldn't dare. Mum always tried not to get on my bad side; knowing that I have a very short temper.

"Bye, mum." I mumbled as I pulled open the front door and walked up the path. It wasn't till I reached the end of the path that I head the door click shut. I let out a loud sigh and took a big gulp of Sunny D as I started walking through the streets of Eastbourne to my Uncle Robbie's house. It was my Sunday routine. Mum would give me a bag of groceries every morning in exchange for some chips to eat on the bus journey to Angie's house. Mum grew her own fruit and vegetables in the back garden and always shared them with Uncle Robbie.

The sun was beating down on my face but there was a slight chill in the air as the wind blew.

I came to my Uncle Robbie's house and looked up at the front door. There were twelve stone steps leading up to it. I had counted them every week. The door swung open as soon as I knocked and there he stood, with a massive grin on his face and still looking the same as ever with his nearly bold head and bushy grey moustache.

"Kayleigh! How nice to see you again!" He would sing before pulling me into a tight hug and kissing me on the cheek. "Come in, come in." He said pulling my arms, dragging me into his house. The house smelt like roast dinner and always had for as long as I could remember. I could hear a Beatles record playing over in the lounge. I gave him the bag vegetables and he gave me my chips. He would then ask me the same question each week,

"So, how's your love life then?"

"We broke up yesterday." I replied bluntly.

Uncle Robbie's smile turned into a frown. "Oh, did you dump him then?"

"Err no. It was the other way round." And that was it. He didn't say anything else. He wouldn't. I turned on my heel and walked out the door.

"Well nice to see you again." Uncle Robbie said and closed the door. I smiled to myself and ran down the stairs.

I sat down at the bus stop and started eating my chips. There was an old lady sat one seat away from me who was there every week. She always looked a little infuriated and tapped her walking cane on the ground continuously. It wasn't long before the bus arrived to take me to Angie's house.

I looked up at the large detached house which Angie lived in. The house's shadow loomed over me as the sun sat behind it. I stood there with the empty chip wrapper scrunched up in one hand. I looked at the window on the top floor on the right side of the house, knowing that in any moment, it would open. It did.

"Are you coming in or what?" It was Lisa leaning out of the window, looking down at me. I smiled and walked up to the front door. Before I could ring the doorbell, Angie's mother opened the door with a grin on her face.

"Morning, Kayleigh." She said as I walked into the house. I took my shoes off and placed them by the shoe rack.

"The girls are up in Angie's bedroom."

I nodded and ran up the stairs and turned into Angie's bedroom. Both of them were sat on the bed reading through a copy of the magazine _Smash Hits_.

"Hiya." Angie said without taking her eyes away from the pages of the magazine. I sighed and slumped down into her black bean bag which was on the floor beside her wardrobe.

Angie's bedroom was big but seemed somewhat claustrophobic as the baby blue painted walls were covered in boy band posters. There were ones of Busted, Take That and Westlife. There was also some magazine cut outs of the bands too. I never understood why both Lisa and Angie had a strong obsession over boy bands.

Angie's mother was Jamaican but married a British man shortly after moving to this country when she was about twenty five. Angie was partly black and had beautiful shoulder length black wavy hair. Lisa was white like me, but had long dead-straight brown hair. Angie used to get teased at school because of her skin colour. It was terrible. She didn't take it easily.

"Okay we've got some really big news to tell you, Kay." Angie eventually said, tossing the magazine to the side. Lisa turned round on the bed to face me.

I groaned. "Let me guess, Westlife are releasing a new song?" I mumbled, looking out the large window on the opposite side of the room, over-looking the houses opposite.

"Nope, better."

I sighed, rubbed my forehead and said nothing. Lisa and Angie exchanged glances.

"There's a new boy band coming and they're having a concert next Saturday in the Band Stand, performing their new single!"

"Also I've brought three tickets for us three to go." Lisa said bluntly, forcing a smile on her face as if she knew what my reaction was going to be.

I froze and then started laughing uncontrollably till my ribs hurt. Once I eventually calmed down I looked at both Angie's and Lisa's facial expressions. They didn't seem to find it funny.

"You are kidding me, right?" I asked but they didn't answer. "You want me to go and see this new boy band with you next weekend? Are you out of your minds?"

"Oh come on Kayleigh!" Angie groaned. "Just go to this one concert for us. And even if you absolutely hate them, we won't bother you on going next time."

I looked down at my nails. "And that's what you told me when Take That came down to Brighton."

"You didn't even give that a chance, Kay!" Angie moaned like she was a little girl not getting her own way. "Don't think about them being a boy band; just take it as a concert. It'll be fun!"

"Angie does have a point though," Lisa said. "You didn't even go to the Take That concert and you said that you hated them, even though you haven't listened to their music. We ended up having to go with Samantha."

Samantha; the shy, quiet blonde haired girl who was in our P.E class and who also had the part time job I wanted to have: a waitress at the bowling alley.

I pushed out a loud sigh and sunk further into the bean bag. "What's the name of this new band?" I asked.

Angie seemed to smile and then said, "McFly."

I tried to suppress a laugh.

"Also their new song is called _Five Colours in Her Hair_." Lisa said. My laugh snuck out which made Angie jump a little.

"Sorry," I said when I stopped laughing. "Just give me time to think about it. But you do know it'll be a waste of time."

Angie shrieked with joy.

It was round about lunch time when the three of us left the house and took a walk down to Eastbourne's pier. We sat on a bench and started eating corn dogs and burgers.

"So, what did you want to tell us?" Lisa asked, eating her cheese burger.

I sighed and said quickly, "James dumped me yesterday."

Lisa and Angie fell silent and looked at me.

"What? You're not being serious, are you?" Angie stumbled over her words.

"It's true." I said nodding. There was a long silence before Lisa put her arm around me and squeezed my arm tightly.

"Don't worry about him, Kay," Angie said. "Boys aren't worth getting your heart broken for. Maybe someday he'll come running back to you, realising what a huge mistake he had made."

I smiled weakly and looked down at the corn dog I was holding.

"I really don't want anything to do with boys any more." I said as the wind started to blow harder.

Lisa looked up at an elderly couple who walked past us hand-in-hand before turning back to me. "Don't be so sure of yourself. Just because James left you it doesn't mean that all boys are going to do the same. Besides, we're here for you."

I shook my head.

"I know that James and I were only dating for three months but I can't bring myself to love another as much as I loved James for … for a long while now."

There was another long silence as Lisa and Angie exchanged glances.

"Anyway, have you got any more news from your song yet?" Angie asked, changing the subject.

I smiled to myself. My song. _Too Close for Comfort_ it was called. I wrote it not so long ago and had been sending it off to different record labels, hoping that one day I would hear a famous singer singing it on the radio.

I sighed heavily. "Yes. I got a polite rejection from it the other day."

"Well you know that they always say, 'When one door closes, two others open'"

"I know that but my song has had _five_ rejections." I groaned. "I don't think there's any point in sending it off any more because no one will want it …"

"Now hold on, Kayleigh," Lisa snapped, putting her hand on my shoulder. "That's what you always say. You always give up on everything and miss out on a chance of having something good happen in your life. Kayleigh you're putting this on yourself. You complain about being nobody but it's _you_ that's making it worse for yourself. You need to stand up and fight for what you believe in and tell the world who you are; not hiding in the shadows, pretending you're invisible!"

I sighed and looked down at my corn dog again.

"If I were you, I'd give it another try and if it's another rejection, then maybe you could sing it yourself or …"

"What did you say?" I asked quickly.

Lisa frowned. "Err, try again …?"

"No, the bit after that."

Lisa rolled her eyes. "Well I can't remember."

"We could start up our own band!" I suggested, jumping on my feet in excitement.

Angie smiled and giggled slightly. "What, the three of us start a band together?"

I shrugged my shoulders. "We could give it a try."

"Oh please don't do this Kayleigh." Lisa mumbled as she folded her arms. "Can you really see _us_ in a band? Can you _really_ see it working out?"

"I can see it working out if we have a go. It could work because Angie can play the drums; Lisa you play the piano and I play the guitar." I grinned broadly feeling happy about this idea.

Angie glanced and Lisa. "I think we should give it a go. It could be fun."

"Wouldn't we need a bass though?" Lisa said spitefully, her eyes narrowing.

"Don't be an idiot; not all bands need a bass." I hissed, narrowing my eyes too.

"Come on Lisa." Angie said, nudging her. "Even if it doesn't work out, at least we tried because you never know till you try."

Lisa froze, frowning at the ground.

"Lisa, you're the one telling me to stop backing out and try something new." I said, watching her every move. "If you do this with us, I'll go to that McFly concert with you next weekend."

A smile crept up on Lisa's face as she looked up at me. "Are you blackmailing me?" She asked. I winked at her.

"Deal?"

Lisa took my hand and shook it firmly. "Deal." She said in reply.

It was getting close to evening and I took a walk back to my house. I had noticed that all around Eastbourne, there were quite a few posters pinned up on walls and streetlamps about McFly's concert, but I wasn't too concerned about it.

"I'm back." I called once I closed the front door. There was no reply but I could hear saucepans clattering in the kitchen and some voices in the lounge. I took my shoes off and walked into the lounge.

In the corner of the room were Dan and Thomas playing a card game at the gambolling table and my dad was sat on the sofa with one of his work friends, Joe Carr.

Joe Carr was a very tall man, like my dad, who had a very dry sense of humour. When I was a little girl, he would tease and torment me for a laugh. I never cried. I never said anything. As I grew older, he would just tease me for being a teenager. He had a son who's a year older than me called Paul. Tracie fancied him for two years straight. Joe Carr was half African, but he didn't have an accent. Like Angie, he too was partly black.

"Kayleigh." Joe Carr said happily when he saw me. He then gestured to the sofa. "Come sit with us. I haven't seen you for a long time."

"Not long enough," I muttered under my breath. "I'd love to have a chat with you but I have a lot of revision and school work to do right now." I said as I picked up a load of texts books which I had left on the carpet.

"No you don't." Headband Dan said loudly, turning around in his chair to face me.

I glared at him. "Yes I do." I hissed through gritted teeth, wanting to hit him.

"You did all your work yesterday and you said that you never like to do work on a Sunday."

I didn't take my eyes off him as he grinned and turned back to playing with Thomas. I glanced at dad who didn't look too pleased. He was always telling me off for my rudeness towards Joe Carr. Reluctantly, I dropped my textbooks and slouched on the sofa next to Joe Carr. Then the question came again.

"So, how's your love life going then?" Joe Carr said nudging me in the ribs. "I hear that there's something going on between you and that James Daniels."

I smiled in a meant-to-be-friendly-sort-of-way and said, "Err yeah."

"You should invite him round sometime. I'd like to meet this chap of yours."

Dad let out a roar of laughter. "Maybe you will meet him one day."

"I don't want to spoil the moment or anything but I will _not _be bringing James home ever again."

Joe Carr blinked a couple of times, looking a little bewildered.

"Just so you know he's now my ex." The room fell silent. Even Dan and Thomas stopped playing cards to look at me.

"Ex?" Dad asked sounding concerned.

"Aren't you going out with this fella then?" Joe asked.

"No I'm not!" I shouted as the temper within me started rising. "He dumped me last night!" I pushed myself up from the sofa and stormed out of the room.

I ignored Liam who was playing snooker on the snooker table in the kitchen as I stormed through the kitchen and towards the stairs.

"So how were Lisa and Angie?" Mum asked as I passed her.

"Fine. They were absolutely, brilliantly, terrifically fine!" I shouted and ran up the stairs, my eyes stinging with tears.

I ran into my room glanced round to make sure that no one was there and slammed the door shut. I fell to my bed and cried. That was the first time I told my dad and brothers about James.

There was a knock on the bedroom door.

I quickly wiped my tears away and said, "If that's one of my siblings, please may you leave now. I understand we share this room but there are times where I need to be alone …"

The door opened. "Kayleigh, that's unfair. You can't shut everyone out of the room." It was only mum. She closed the door behind her and sat on the end of my bed. She pulled me up to sitting position and rubbed my back and I rested my head on her shoulder.

"Did one of Joe's jokes upset you? Or are you still upset about James?" Mum asked stroking my hair.

I sniffed as my bottom lip started to quiver. "I don't know how I'm ever going to get over James."

Mum sighed and kissed me on the head. "I know how you're feeling. Your first heartbreak is very hard to get over but you'll see that James wasn't the one for you. I know it may sound silly now but in a few weeks time, you'll just take him as your first love."

"Was dad your first love?" I asked wiping my nose.

However mum didn't answer and carried on stroking my hair. There was a moments silent before mum whispered, "Are you happier now?"

I just nodded not really meaning it. She kissed me on the head once more and stood up to walk out the room.

"Mum," I called as she reached the door. "Are we free next Saturday?"

Mum raised her eyebrows and said. "No, I don't think we are, sweetheart. Your father wants to take us to Brighton for the day, so he can study for his maybe new work placement. Why? What do you have in mind?"

"Well, Angie and Lisa bought three concert tickets for next Saturday …"

"It's not one of those silly boy bands that they're fascinated by, is it?" Mum asked, her tone of voice sounding somewhat irritated.

"Well it's a new boy band called McFly and …"

"I thought you hated boy bands."

"Mum, would you just let me explain first?" I hissed. Mum fell silent and leant against the wall. "I've made a deal with Lisa that if the three of us started up a band, I'll go to the concert with them next weekend."

"A band? You want to start a band with Lisa and Angie?"

I looked down at my bed covers and shrugged my shoulders, knowing that by the sound of her voice, she didn't like the idea. "We're just trying it out. It's not too serious or anything …"

"Haven't you got your GCSE exams to be worrying about rather than playing about in a silly band that won't get you into college?" Mum said spitefully. She looked at my pinched face and sighed. "I'll have to ask your father about next weekend. They're talking about a possible promotion for your father and we might have to move to Brighton."

My mouth went dry for a moment but I quickly cleared it and said, "Move to Brighton?"

Mum didn't reply and left the room.

It was seven that evening and mum called me down for dinner. Joe Carr would have dinner with us like he did every time he came round to visit. As I got to the bottom of the stairs, everyone was already sat around the dinner table, watching me. There was one seat left next to Joe Carr but I pretended that I didn't see it. I felt humiliated by getting so upset in front of him and couldn't stand the thought of being teased by him throughout the rest of the evening.

"So, where do I sit then?" I asked casually. Tracie stood up and pointed to the chair next to Joe Carr.

"That seat right there!" She said, emphasising the words 'right there'. She smirked at me before sitting down again. I rolled my eyes and went to sit next to Joe Carr. I grabbed a plate and started to put some food on it. No one was talking and I could feel everybody's eyes on me. I knew that they were all expecting me to say sorry to Joe Carr for being so 'rude' to him. I looked up and everyone _was_ looking at me. I slammed my plate down on the table and said,

"Alright, I'm _sorry_ Joe. I didn't mean to snap at you earlier on. I guess I'm just a bit moody because I'm still really upset about James dumping me. I didn't mean to let it out all on you." I looked up at Joe Carr who started to smile at me, showing off his yellowing teeth.

"Doesn't matter love," He said, rustling my hair. "I know what all teenagers are like. Got two of them myself." Dad and Joe Carr fell into fits of laughter.

I looked up at Liam who had a concerned look on his face. I then noticed that Dan and Thomas started flicking bits of mashed potato at each other.

Ignoring what mum had said earlier on, I still wanted to announce to my family that Lisa, Angie and I were going to start a band.

Once everyone had finished eating their dinner, I got up and picked up everyone's dinner plates and put them in the dishwasher. Mum looked quite surprised.

"Wow, that's a change for once." Dad said and started laughing with Joe Carr again. I ignored them and got out the pudding and gave some ice cream to everyone.

"Oh, this wasn't the dessert I had in mind sweetheart but this'll have to do." Mum said sounding a little annoyed but no one cared as they all ate the ice cream. As I sat down, I could see Dan and Thomas eyeing each other.

Once everyone had finished eating, I cleaned up their bowels.

"Well, I'll have to say that that was a fabulous dinner, Zoe. Better than what my wife does at home. I am impressed." Joe Carr said wiping his mouth on a napkin. Yet again, Joe Carr and dad started laughing. I put all of the pudding bowels into the dishwasher and then I went up to dad and hugged him from behind.

"Dad you do know how much I love you, don't you?" I said cheerfully.

"Have you been breathing in car fumes from next door?" Dad asked, feeling rather tense. I laughed and then sat back in my seat.

"No," I said, giggling to myself. "I want to talk about a plan that me, Lisa and Angie have."

Everyone looked at each other and then mum said in a not-so-nice-way,

"Is that the plan about seeing McFly on Saturday?"

I frowned and shook my head. "No. That's not what I'm on about …"

"Well what is this thing you want then?" Tracie snapped.

"We've agreed to start up a girl band together."

Everyone went quiet and then they all burst out laughing. Except Liam.

I smiled with them, not really understanding what they found so funny.

"I don't get it," I then frowned "Why you laughing?"

Once they had all calmed down, dad said, "Look darling, you're only fifteen years old and you want to join a band. Don't you think it's a bit too soon to be thinking about your career now? I mean you should be more concerned about doing well in your GCSE exams this year and getting into college."

"I told her that earlier on, David." Mum said to dad. "She doesn't seem to listen."

"But I've already written a song …" I said, trying to push my point across.

"Yeah, a song that no record labels would ever want." Thomas said and then he and Dan laughed.

"You do have a wild imagination." Joe Carr cackled, punching me playfully on the arm.

Mum smiled and then walked to the dishwasher saying, "Just stick with backing out on everything. It's how we all know you and how we all like you, Kayleigh."

It was later that evening and everyone went to bed. Joe Carr left shortly after dinner. Everyone was asleep but Liam and I decided to sleep in our tent outside in the back garden. We did this nearly every night; slept in sleeping bags in the tent rather than our own beds. It was the only way we could properly talk to each other without Tracie, Dan or Thomas getting in the way.

I was lying on my back in my sleeping bag, playing with the torch and shining it around the tent. Liam on the other hand was sat up, reading a book. He then looked up at me.

"Did James really dump you yesterday?" Liam asked. I sighed as I started to shine the torch around the tent roof.

"Yeah." I replied.

"I'm sorry." Liam whispered.

I turned over on my side to look at him. I rested my elbow on my pillow and put my head in my hand.

"Don't feel bad Liam. It's just life. Everyone at least goes through heartbreak." I turned the torch off and put it by the candle which was lit.

"Dad didn't dump mum when they first went out." Liam said, putting his book down.

"Not all relationships are the same, Liam." I said as I picked up the candle.

Liam just nodded as he closed his book and snuggled down in his sleeping bag.

"Are you sleeping now?" I asked.

Liam made a mumbling noise and I couldn't quite understand what he was trying to say.

"I'll take it as a yes." I said and then blew out the candle. The tent became pitched black.


	3. Chapter 2

**Monday 24th March 2004**

I woke up by the sound of someone scrabbling outside the tent. I pretended to be asleep as I knew that it was time to get up for school. Someone undid the zip of the tent and then to my surprise they jumped on me, bouncing up and down and screaming in my ear,

"WAKE UP KAYLEIGH! IT'S SCHOOL NOW!" It was Screaming Lord Thomas. I pushed him away before sitting up. He started to kick Liam.

"You awake?" Thomas yelled in Liam's ear.

"No." I mumbled and laid back down. I covered my face with my pillow as Thomas started to sing.

"_Wake up children, welcome the morning, wake up children have a cup of tea_._"_ However, Liam and I ignored him and didn't move. Thomas then started jumping on me and kicking me again.

"Alright, I'm awake!" I snapped, pushing him off. Thomas smiled as I climbed out of my sleeping bag and out the tent to find it was tipping it down with rain outside. I sprinted across the muddy grass and into the conservatory where Tracie was sat in her pink fluffy dressing gown, drinking coffee. I completely blanked her and walked straight into the kitchen. Mum was cooking pancakes.

"There's my little cupcake." Mum said cheerfully. She came up to me and gave me a tight hug and a kiss on the forehead. "Pancakes?"

"Erm, yeah, sure." I said and sat down at the table. I heard the radio in the background but I was too tired to pay any attention to what was being played.

"Hey, isn't this the band Lisa and Angie want you to see?" Mum asked turning up the radio. The DJ started to talk about McFly and he said that he was just about to have an interview with them. I groaned and turned the radio off, not wanting to listen to them.

It was half eight in the morning. I escaped out of the house safely and started to walk down the road, taking bites out of an apple. I tried to steal another bottle of Sunny D but mum caught me and pushed me out of the house. It had stopped raining and the sun tried to creep out from behind the clouds.

Every morning, I would walk over to Angie's house to walk to school while my dad gave my siblings a lift into school.

"So, what did your parents think about the idea of us starting a band then?" I asked Angie after meeting her at the end of her road.

"They liked the idea. They thought that now is a good time to start thinking about my career." Angie said happily. "I was thinking about working in a recording studio for work experience or something." I said nothing as we got closer to school.

"Did your parents think it was a good idea to start a band?" Angie asked.

I sighed. "They all laughed at the idea. Except Liam"

Angie frowned. "How do you mean?"

"Mum said that she prefers me backing out on everything. She seemed a little annoyed by the idea and said how I should be more concerned about my exams." I mumbled.

"That's just silly," Angie hissed. "Your parents can't stop you from doing something you want to do. Just remember what they always say Kayleigh: 'When one door closes…'"

"'Two others open'." I said, finishing off the sentence.

Angie smiled. "Good."

I then remembered about James. "What am I going to do about James?"

"What about him?"

"The word about our split has probably been spread across the school and everyone would want to know what's going on. No doubt half of the year will be on James' side as no one knows who I am." I mumbled.

"Negativity, that's the problem with you," Angie said, tapping me on the shoulder. "You're always negative and that is why everything gets you down all of the time."

I sighed loudly. "I suppose you're right."

"I am right." Angie laughed.

We eventually arrived at school. We stopped by the school gates, looking at the open field and the school building in front of us. All the pupils were running around playing games. Some were stood in circles, talking to one another and some were sat down on the grass. I did not like school at all. It felt like I was being held in prison. The school building was like a castle because it was so big. We had an indoor swimming pool and gym and outside we had a large football, rugby and rounders field. You'd find most of the boys in my year working out at the gym and Tracie and her 'girlfriends' would sit and watch them.

Angie and I met up with Lisa by the tree in the corner of the football field. That was where we met up every school morning. Lisa was casually leaning against the tree, texting on her phone.

"Hang on a moment." Lisa said and carried on texting as we reached her. I glanced at Angie and she rolled her eyes. Lisa then finally looked up and smiled.

"Like it?" She asked, holding up her brand new mobile. "Daddy brought it yesterday."

"Brilliant." I said and leaned against the tree with her.

"So, what did your parents think about the band idea …" Angie paused. "Well, your mum …" Lisa's face looked a little pinched but then smiled. Her parents had a divorce a few months back.

"Well my mum thought that it was a brilliant idea and now, I'm pretty thankful that you made me do this," Lisa said and then she looked at me. "So you'll be coming to see McFly with us on Saturday?"

"My family doesn't seem to like the idea." I said. Lisa looked disappointed. "As soon as yours and Angie's parents like it, my family just laughs at me and say that they'd prefer it if I back out on everything."

"Well it doesn't stop you form starting a band does it? You're going to be sixteen in about seven weeks time, it's best to start your career now instead of regretting it in your future life."

"But the problem is, Lisa, is that my parents won't let me. They'd rather me back out on everything and keep my singing and guitar playing to myself," I snapped and then I sighed. "Maybe I should just carry on sending my song to other singers and wait for another rejection."

Lisa smiled in a comforting way and put her arm round me. I let her hug me and then hugged her back.

"Anyway, I know something that'll cheer you up," Lisa said cheerfully. "Apparently James isn't going to be in today."

I pulled away from Lisa. "Really?"

"Yup."

"Why isn't he?" Angie asked.

Lisa shrugged. "God knows why."

The bell rang. The three of us walked toward the locker room to put our bags away before going into the hall for a twenty minute assembly with our openly gay Headmaster: Mr Hobbs.

I opened my locker and shoved my bag inside before looking at my reflection in the cracked mirror, hanging on the inside of the locker door. I cracked it a week ago. Seven years bad luck. I was ready for it.

I noticed four photos of James and I in the photo booth on Eastbourne pier, pulling silly faces. I sighed as I ripped the photos off the door and put them in the bin next to me. As I did that, a girl and a boy walked passed me. The girl said,

"Did you hear that James is no longer going out with that ginger girl?"

"She probably was rubbish at sex." The boy said before they both laughed and walked out the locker rooms. I frowned and gave them two fingers. Angie slightly giggled but stopped abruptly when I heard my English teacher, Mrs Wragg say,

"That's not the type of behaviour I would like to see on a new day of a brand new week at school, Miss Slovenia."

I turned round to face her; everyone around me was sniggering as they walked past.

"Sorry, Miss." I mumbled.

"I should jolly well hope so too young lady. Now give me your homework planner and I'll give you a warning." I opened my locker, got out my bag and gave Mrs Wragg my homework planner. She snatched it out of my hands and started to write something in it.

"Okay, I've given you a warning and if you get another one today, you'll be getting a detention after school on Friday." She hissed, shoved it in my hands and strutted off.

"A perfect start to a perfect day." I said as Angie and Lisa stood next to me, giggling. I then hit them both on the head with my homework planner.

"Hey, what was that for?" Angie said, still laughing.

"It's not funny that I got a warning." I snapped and then I started to laugh with them.

We were sat towards the back of the hall during assembly. It was the worst part of the day. We had to sit on the hard floorboards for twenty minutes while Mr Hobbs talked. I used to listen to my ipod but I got caught three times and was given a Friday detention.

"I would like to welcome you back to school for a brand new week. There are quite a few things I need to point out to you because these next three weeks are going to be a little bit different and extremely busy.

"As we all know, the year nines are all having their end of year exams this week so we want to remind you that you _must_ be silent when walking through the corridors as it is unfair on the ones sitting the exams if you make too much noise." Mr Hobbs paused as he looked at all of us. He started to look somewhat uncomfortable and nervous all of a sudden. He started to play with his shirt collar and went a little red in the face. "Err, then next week, we erm …" He paused again, feeling rather intimidated by his own pupils. "We have the, err … the err, music week, like we ...um, have every year and err, the week after we, erm, have the, err, the er, the sports week …" The hall fell silent. We were all sat there looking at him oddly. Someone started to cough and we could tell that Mr Hobbs was getting irritated and embarrassed at the same time. He cleared his throat and said loud and clearly. "Yes, next week is the music week and the week following that is sports week," There was another long silence. "And now I want to hand you over to Mr Humble, our new Religious Studies teacher." Mr Hobbs looked behind him and nodded at a man who was sitting on one of the chairs, next to the other teachers, cross-legged with his hands in his lap. The man stood up and took Mr Hobbs' place. Our new RS teacher looked rather sweet and innocent. He had a yellow shirt on, a blue and white spotted tie with a red and black jumper with a diamond pattern on it. His hair was brown and was gelled over to one side and he wore very large, thick, black round glasses, similar to the ones my dad wore, only rounder. He walked forward, with pieces of paper in his hands. He cleared his throat and started to speak.

"Good morning all pupils," He said in a very posh accent. "My name is Mr Humble and I will be your new Religious Studies teacher for the rest of this academic year as Mrs Falwer is on maternity leave. I will expect you to be on your _best_ behaviour in my classes because I will be taking notes on how you are and how fantastic this school is. I will be looking out for children messing around and bad behaviour. And if I do see any of this, then I'll put down bad notes and then this school maybe closed down … for _good_."

Some of the pupils started to whisper to each other. Mr Humble then took out a mini black book out of his back trouser pocket and started to read what was in it.

"Yes, not only am I a teacher qualified in Religious Studies, I am also a school journalist for the local newspapers," He then gestured to his little book. "Here is a list of rules that I will want in my class. They will be up on the wall so you can read it _every_ lesson you have with me and you can know what to do and what _not_ to do." He cleared his throat once more and was about to speak but then the bell rang. Everyone quickly stood up and started to run off to their lessons.

"Saved by the bell," I said to Angie as we walked to over to the science blocks where we had our first lesson. "I don't think that anyone would have wanted to hear his pathetic list out loud."

"But if you are bad in his lessons, Kayleigh, then our school will have to be closed down." Lisa said as the wind started to blow in our faces.

"He's dramatising it!" I groaned.

"Kayleigh, I really do think he was being serious." Angie said. I rolled my eyes.

"Well I'm not afraid of any _strict_ teachers. I'll just get on with what I do best." I said proudly.

Lisa laughed. "What, getting into arguments with your teachers every day?" I stopped walking and frowned, but Lisa and Angie carried on. I sighed and started walking again.

Once we reached the science blocks, we all sat down in our seats and took out our books. Ms Meyers, our science teacher, was sat by her desk with her feet up, reading a copy of _Heat_ magazine and chewing gum. The lab smelled heavily of her perfume.

The room fell silent and all we could hear was the sound of Ms Meyers chewing her gum. Everyone was looking at each other and trying not to giggle. Ms Meyers looked up over her _Heat_ magazine.

"Oh, err turn to page 167 in your GCSE's text books." She said and looked down at her magazine again.

"But Miss," Lisa spoke out. "You haven't handed us the GCSE text books yet."

Ms Meyers looked slightly irritated by the fact that she had to move out of her seat. She groaned loudly, took her feet off the table, put the magazine on the desk and took her reading glasses off. She hesitated for a moment then said, "Kayleigh, can you go and hand out the GCSE text books since you're closest."

I rolled my eyes and stood up. "Where are they?" I asked. Ms Meyers pointed to a stack of thick text books over by the window which was on the other side of the class. I didn't understand why she had to pick me to hand out the books when there were five other girls who were sat closer to them.

Without a word, I walked to where the books were and started to hand them out to the class. No one was kind enough to say 'thank you' but Lisa and Angie. Instead, I got glares and whispers behind my back. I ignored them and sat back down in my seat. Lisa and Angie were already noting down notes about Physics and answering the textbook questions. I saw that everyone else was writing something down and I had no idea what I was supposed to do. Silence filled the air as I put my hand up.

"What do you want now, Miss Slovenia?" Ms Meyers snapped, slamming the magazine on the desk.

"Erm, what are we meant to be doing?" I asked. Lisa rolled her eyes. I looked round and everyone was just watching me.

"You turn to page 167 in the text book." Ms Meyers said sternly.

"Yes, I've done that."

"Well you should be noting it down then."

"Noting what down?" I asked rudely. I didn't understand. Ms Meyers was a terrible teacher who never explained herself properly.

"I told you what to note down five minutes ago." She hissed narrowing her eyes.

"But I was too busy handing out the text books." I snapped.

"Are you trying to tell me that you weren't listening?" Ms Meyers shouted, standing up. I stood up to. Lisa was pulling on the sleeve of my school jumper as if to tell me to sit back down.

"Well I'm sorry miss but I can't do two things at the same time."

"Don't be cheeky with me, Miss Slovenia!"

"Cheeky? How the fuck am I being cheeky you silly cow?" It was too late. The words slipped out of my mouth before I could stop them. I could see Lisa shaking her head in disappointment in the corner on my eye.

"Give me your homework planner. You'll be staying in detention after school on Friday." Ms Meyers said calmly. I paused, unable to move. "_Now_!"

I quickly picked up my planner and walked across the classroom and placed it on her desk. She then pointed to the door. She wanted me to leave. I did so.

"And I'll be phoning your parents too!" She called after me as I opened the door and slammed it shut. I sat on the rail outside the science block. I wasn't meant to swear or call Ms Meyers a cow; it just slipped out because she made me so angry. I didn't get on well with any of the teachers at school because of the arguments we had. My dad had a short temper too, but mine seemed to be worse than his.

I looked up and saw some year sevens peeking out of one of the other science block windows to look at me. They probably heard me shouting.

The wind started to blow hard again and Mr Humble came round the corner. He had three black folders wedged under his arm. He was walking in a sort of way which made him look like he's in a hurry, but his legs weren't long enough to carry him at a fast speed. I lifted my arm to wave at him, smiling and said,

"Hello, Mr Humble." He stopped walking abruptly and looked. He stood there for a moment, examining me. He frowned and then walked up to me.

"Why are you standing out here?" He asked.

"Ohhh, Ms Meyers sent me out here. She wants to have a little word with me about, erm … my GCSE's." I lied and then grinned.

He grunted and asked, "What's your name?"

"Kayleigh. Kayleigh Slovenia."

"Ahhhh," He sounded like he was really interested in my name. "I've heard a great deal about you Miss Slovenia." He said, waggling his pen at me.

"Like what?"

He laughed under his breath and said in my ear, "You're a trouble maker."

I looked at him in the eye. I smiled weakly.

"I'm looking forward to our RS lesson this afternoon, to see how bad you really are." He walked off, his shoes clomping away.

The last lesson arrived and Angie and I walked down the school corridors towards the RS department to have our first RS lesson with Mr Humble. We both tried to get the back seats but two of Tracie's 'girlfriends' got there before us. We took the seats in front of them. The two girls who we had in our RS class were Chloe Bell and Jenny Freewood. The other two of Tracie's 'girlfriends' were called Jess Wells and Katy Thompson.

They all looked similar to one another with their beach blonde hair, orange faces and short, tight clothes that didn't fit them. However, Jenny was the only one in the group who had black hair.

We were all sat down by the time Mr Humble came into the classroom.

"And I expect all of you to be standing up when I walk in." Mr Humble hissed, not even looking at us. The whole class stood up slowly, looking at one another. I glanced at Angie who was looking down at the table, too scared of eye contact. Mr Humble put his folders gingerly onto the desk at the front and turned round to face us, smiling.

"You may now sit down."

We all sat down in silence. Mr Humble stood there with his hands behind his back, watching us. He was mostly looking at me but I never took my eyes off him. He turned round and wrote in capital letters on the board 'RELIGIOUS STUDIES'. He started to mumble something under his breathe and then he said in an annoyed tone,

"And you'd better find a better place to hide your chewing gum, Mr Michaels!" We all looked at Sam Michaels who was sat in the corner of the room, sticking chewing gum under the desk. Sam, who had dirty blonde hair and broad shoulders, looked up at everyone in alarm.

"Argh, you're joking!" He groaned. "He didn't even look at me, twat."

"AND DON'T YOU DARE TALK ABOUT ME BEHIND MY BACK WHEN I CAN STILL HEAR YOU!" Mr Humble shouted, chucking a pen at Sam. Sam dodged out of the way and the pen hit the wall behind him. "And you can stand outside of the classroom, young man."

Sam raised his eyebrows but obeyed Mr Humble's command. He walked behind our table, flicked me on the back of the head and walked out of the room.

Sam Michaels and I used to best friends, until James dumped me that was. Sam was one of James' best friends.

The lesson went by quickly and it was only five minutes till the last bell. Mr Humble had written a whole paragraph on the board about Buddhism and he expected us to copy it all down, word-by-word and memorise it off by heart. The paragraph took up the whole whiteboard. I was about halfway through writing it until I got a note from Jenny. I put my hands under the table and sneakily opened up the note and read it. It read,

"_Why the hell did you dump James on Saturday?_" I looked up at Jenny and frowned. I shook my head and then started to write down,

"_He was the one who dumped me!_" But as I wrote 'He' I heard Mr Humble's voice say next to me,

"I hope that's not a note you have got there, Miss Slovenia." I looked up and Mr Humble was stood side-on next to me, his hands behind his back.

"Erm no sir. It's a note to remind me to revise History this evening." I lied but then Mr Humble cupped his hand in front of me. I guessed he wanted me to hand him the note but I didn't.

"No sir it's fine. I'll put it safely away …" I said and tried to put the note in my pencil case but he snatched it out of my hand and started to read it. I could hear Jenny and Chloe sniggering behind me. I rested my elbows on the table and put my chin in my hands. Mr Humble grunted, screwed up the note and started to walk to the front of the class.

"And you too can stay behind at the end of the lesson with Mr Michaels." He said. I leaned back into my chair, looking at my pen and tapping it on the desk.

"Is that clear?" He asked.

"Mmmm hhmmm." I mumbled as the last bell rang. Mr Humble told us to pack up all of our books and equipment and to stand behind our chairs. When we were packing up, Angie asked if she should wait for me but I said no.

The class left and Sam and I walked up to the front of the classroom and stood by the desk where Mr Humble was sat eating an apple. I sighed, blowing my fringe out of my face while Sam leaned back and ignored me. After I got that note from Jenny, I had a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach that James had lied to everyone. I watched the clock that was hanging up on the wall above the whiteboard but didn't realise that Mr Humble had already started to talk to us. He then clicked his fingers in front of my face which made me jump.

"Thank you very much. You need to pay attention a bit more, Miss Slovenia." Mr Humble said, tapping his head with his pen. I just nodded and looked at Sam who was looking at me up and down. I rolled my eyes. It took Mr Humble awhile to explain that we were both given a detention Friday after school.

"But sir," I said. "I've already got one with Ms Meyers."

"Well you'll have to come Saturday morning then." Mr Humble said.

"But then I'm going to Brighton with my family."

"Then it'll have to be Saturday evening then."

"I'm going to see McFly in the evening with my friends." I said. I was just about to say something else but Mr Humble slammed his fist on the desk.

"Well you'll just have to miss out on the concert. Now I'm setting a detention for both of you Saturday evening and you WILL come. No excuses."

I frowned and stormed out of the room. Mr Humble started shouting after me but I took no notice. I found myself running all the way out of the building and the school gates.

I didn't want to go home straight away. I took a detour around Eastbourne on purpose. I took a walk along the promenade and the stony beach. The beach wasthe only place where I got time to be alone and think things through. No one ever found me there.

I walked slowly along the pier and then stopped when I saw some poster on a lamppost. I walked up to it and read it. It had a photo of McFly on it and it was advertising their concert. All my anger rushed though me again as I ripped the poster off the lamppost and shoved it in the bin. I didn't even care about the people who walked past me and gave me dirty looks.

I turned to my right to see an old couple sat on a bench. The old woman was pointing at me and shaking her head. I ignored them and walked to the beach. The wind was blowing hard in my face as I walked down the hill of the beach. I put my hands in my school blazer pockets and walked up to the sea. I took off my shoes, dropped them on the stones and put my feat into the water. The water was freezing and made my feet feel a little numb after a while but I found it to be quite relaxing and it put all of my worries to the back of my mind. However, the moment was spoilt when I heard someone calling my name. I turned round to see Headband Dan.

"Kayleigh, what are you doing?" He asked, looking at me, his head cocked to one side.

I picked up my shoes and stormed up to him. "Did you follow me here?" I hissed.

Dan nodded. "Yep. And I even took the poster of McFly that you ripped off the lamppost." He then laughed and passed me the remains of the poster. I groaned, snatched it out of his hand and shoved it in my pocket.

"Why were you following me?" I asked slipping my wet feet back into my shoes.

Dan shrugged. "Well I saw you walking up the pier after I brought myself some chips and then I decided to follow you because you were there." I sat down on the stones and Dan did the same. Dan offered me a chip but I pushed him away.

"Just go home Dan, I'm really not in the mood at the moment." I sighed.

"What's the problem with you then? James wasn't even in today."

"It's none of your business so just leave me alone."

"C'mon, you can tell me." Dan said nudging me on the arm.

"No I can't because whatever I tell you, it somehow gets out of your mouth round the school. I can never trust you, Dan."

"Ahh, you have a point there." Dan mumbled and then chucked a stone into the sea. He then stood up and said, "Well I'm not going to spend my whole evening sitting here on the beach with my sister who looks like she's sucking on a lemon. I'm going home," There was a bit of silence and then he said, "Coming?"

I sighed and stood up. We walked back home along the main road. The walk back was in silent, but Dan kicked every stone that we passed which hit me on the back of my heels.

As we got to the town centre, Dan suddenly gasped and pushed me into a thorn bush.

"Dan! What are you doing?" I snapped as the thorns cut my skin.

"Just shut up a second!" He hissed. I had no idea what this was on about until I saw a gang of boys come up to him. I couldn't quite catch what they were saying but I could see that Dan was trying to act cool as if he was impressing them. At first, I thought he was trying to impress the boys, until I heard a girl's voice.

"God, that was a close one." Dan said as he pulled me out of the bush once they had gone. I looked at my uniform and I had blood all over it.

"Why the hell did you push me into the bush, Dan? Look at me. I'm a mess!" I snapped.

"They're the popular boys in my year and they asked me to play football with them sometime … and, uhhm … it would be a bit uncool if they saw me hanging round with you," Dan said. I looked at him blankly. "No offence." Dan then said quickly.

"None taken." I mumbled and walked on.

We got home round about six o'clock and mum, Tracie, Thomas and Liam were all stood in the hallway putting on their coats and shoes.

"Oh there you are," Mum said as soon as we got in. "Go upstairs, get changed into something normal and put decent some shoes on."

"Where are we going?" Dan asked.

"There's a little funfair at the Links Golf Club and I thought that it would be nice if we went there tonight. Also McFly will be there and they are going to sing their new single. So maybe you could come and watch this, Kayleigh, and then come to Brighton with us on Saturday." Mum said, doing her pink coat up.

I groaned and walked halfway to the kitchen door to get to the stairs but then Tracie said,

"Kayleigh, why have you got blood on your school shirt?"

"She fell over and landed in a thorn bush." Dan said quickly. Mum laughed as I walked up the stairs ignoring them.

I got changed into a black jumper and some blue baggy jeans. I put on some white trainers and walked back down the stairs.

"Do you mind your father not coming with us?" Mum asked. "He's gone down to the pub with Joe and his other friends."

"Whatever." I mumbled.

Mum smiled at me and they all walked out of the house. I trailed behind slowly. All of my sibling were walking next to mum and laughing with her. I was just walked behind them with my hands in my jean pockets, not wanting to go to this funfair.

It wasn't long till we arrived at the Links Golf Club. It was a wide open field which had carnival-like rides and games and stands around. The sky was dark but the field had lit up from the carnival lights.

"So, what ride do you wanna go on first?" Mum asked, rubbing her hands together.

"Slammer!" Tracie shouted with excitement. "Apparently it's meant to be the best ride of the season!"

Mum just shrugged her shoulders and said, "Slammer it is then."

We walked to the ride and there was a massive queue to it.

"Are you making me spend most of the evening lining up for this ride?" I groaned.

"Oh, is someone a little desperate to see her McFly boys?" Trace said, imitating a baby's voice before laughing out loud.

"I am not desperate to see them," I said in reply. "You know I don't like boy bands and I never will!" Everyone in the queue looked at me. I froze, not realising that I had started to shout.

"Don't shout!" Mum muttered under her breath. "You're embarrassing me."

I sighed and decided that it was best to stay quiet for the whole evening.

The queue got shorter and shorter till we were finally allowed on the ride. The safety guards were checking if our belts were fitted on properly when we were in the seats and then one of them pressed a button and our seats moved back slowly.

"Actually …" Liam started to whinge, "I WANNA GET OFF!" There were some other people sat next to us who started to scream as the ride started to spin us round and round. It got faster and faster.

"Try and keep and straight face!" Dan shouted to Thomas. I looked at them and then they were pulling faces. On the other hand, mum, Tracie and Liam, and some other people were screaming uncontrollably. I started to feel really sick as all I could see was the world turning round and around.

When the ride stopped, I quickly took the seatbelt off and stood up, as well as Thomas and Dan. Mum, Liam and Tracie were sat in the seats, dead still. I laughed at them. They all stood up slowly and then mum said,

"Remind me to never go on a ride … _again_."

Once we had all gotten over the ride, mum gave us all some money and let us go off on our own. My three brothers ran off together over to the trampolines while Tracie found her 'girlfriends' and ran off together with them. I started to walk around for a bit on my own. It wasn't until I brought myself some candy floss that I saw Lisa and Angie.

We started walking around the funfair together, all eating my candy floss.

"Did you know that McFly are here and they are going to sing their song?" Angie asked as she started jumping up and down on the balls of her feet.

"You don't say." I said sarcastically. Angie linked arms with me as we walked on.

"But Lisa and I have spotted them. They're lurking around by the side of the funfair by the cake stall." I looked at Angie and raised my eyebrows.

"C'mon, we'll show you." Lisa said, grabbing onto my hand and dragging me away. Before I got the chance to say no, I was whisked away to the end of the field. It was deserted and all that was there were a picnic bench and a cake stall. We hid behind someone's car and looked at four boys who were stood by the stall, talking to the cook. They didn't look that old, maybe a couple of years older than us.

"Do you think we should go to the stall and start talking to them?" Angie whispered.

I just looked at her. "You can. I'm not going." But as soon as I said that I found myself walking towards the cake stall; Lisa pushing me slightly.

The four McFly boys fell silent as we reached the stall.

"Can we have three chocolate muffins please?" Lisa said sweetly, putting a ten pound note on the table in front of us. The owner of the cake stall started humming to himself cheerfully as he got out three chocolate muffins. As he did this, I looked over to McFly. One of them who had blown floppy hair that went over his eyes a little was looking at me. I smiled and winked at him. He went slightly red in the face and instantly looked away.

As we paid for the muffins we started to walk away. Both Lisa and Angie started giggling quietly but I walked quicker, wanting to get as far away from McFly as possible.

"Are you that new boy band who'll be playing this evening?" I heard Lisa's voice call out to them.

"Jesus Christ!" I grumbled and reluctantly turned on my heel to face them.

The four boys looked at us. I wanted to run away.

The blonde one said, "Erm yeah we are." And then smiled.

"Well good luck, boys. I'm sure you'll be great out there!" Angie said. The boys smiled broadly.

"Wow, thanks love!" One of them said. There was a bit of a silence until the same one said, "Hey, what are your names?"

Angie flushed a little and said, "I'm Angie Gibson and these are my two best friends, Lisa Levett and Kayleigh Slovenia."

The one who asked the question nodded and smiled. "Well, see you around, Angie." They then walked off.

For a second I thought Angie was going to faint but she didn't. Instead she looked at me and dragged me to the picnic bench.

"I want the drummer!" She announced as we sat down.

"What, the one that seemed interested in you?" I asked, picking all the chocolate flakes off the muffin and putting it in my mouth.

"His name is Harry."

I rolled my eyes. We fell silent as we munched on our muffins until we heard some girls screaming in the distance and music playing.

"Oh my God, is that McFly?" Lisa said, jerking up.

I groaned. "Please can it not be."

"I think it is!"

Lisa then started running off in the direction of where the music was coming from. Angie grabbed onto my hand and we ended up running after Lisa. There were loads of girls screaming and dancing about in the centre where the stage was.

Lisa and Angie dragged me through the busy crowd, wanting to get to the front. However they were unsuccessful so we had to stay put in the middle.

McFly were playing their single _5 Colours In Her Hair_ and everyone around me was dancing along. I didn't start dancing till Angie had grabbed hold of my hand and started spinning me around.

Once the song ended, the crowd roared. I had to cover my ears.

"Thank you guys!" The blonde one who was one of the lead singers and played guitar, shouted down the microphone and everyone started to cheer louder. "We'll be seeing you on Saturday!"

All of the girls screamed even more and then everyone eventually calmed down when McFly walked off the stage. I sighed until Angie said to me,

"Are you coming Kayleigh?"

I looked at her. "What?"

"We're going to the pier, do you wanna come?" Lisa asked.

"Erm, yeah. I'll catch up with you in a minute …" And then before I knew it, they had run off. I walked round the field looking for mum to tell her that I was going to the pier with Angie and Lisa. It was quite hard to find her as it was so busy, so I started to walk on a bit quicker until I accidentally walked into someone.

"Oh, sorry!" I apologised feeling guilty but when I looked up, I noticed that it was the floppy hair boy from McFly, the one who went red in the face when I winked at him. He was one of the other lead singers who also played guitar. I looked at him and smiled. I muttered sorry again, feeling quite embarrassed.

"No problem." He said, his northern accent coming through. He then smiled back at me before holding my arms, gently moving me to the side and then walking off.

"Kayleigh, what are doing standing about? I gave you money to spend on rides!"

I turned round and saw mum.

"Oh I was looking for you." I said and walked towards her.

"Please don't tell me you want to go home." Mum said sounding annoyed.

"No, it's just that …"

"Did you enjoy watching McFly?" Mum asked in the middle of my sentence. "They weren't too bad, weren't they?"

"Erm … no." I said in reply.

"What? Didn't you enjoy watching them perform?"

I shrugged "It was a bit boring, but you know me, I hate boy bands."

Mum looked a bit disappointed. "Oh okay then. So does that mean that you will be coming to Brighton with us on Saturday then?"

"Well I'll have to talk to Angie and Lisa about that."

"Where are they then?"

"They've gone down to the pier and I said that I'll meet them down there."

"Oh okay. But I want you to be back home before eleven tonight."

I smiled. Mum then gave me a hug, kissed me on the forehead and walked off over to a karaoke machine.

I walked out of the field and towards the pier. Once I got there I saw the lamppost that I had ripped the McFly poster off. The 'y' of McFly was still on it. I put my hand in my jean pocket and took out the remains of the poster. It was all crumpled up. I heard two people talking next to me; I looked up and saw two old people sitting on a bench, looking at me. It was the same couple as before.

"Returning what you ripped off?" The old woman growled.

I just looked at her and said nothing.

The old man next to her laughed. "Bet you feel bad now, don't you?" They both laughed. I sighed and walked away stuffing the poster back into my pocket.

I stood by the rail of the pier and looked down at the sea. The pier lights were reflecting off the water.

"Kayleigh!" Someone called. I looked up and saw Angie jumping up and down, waving her arms about at me. Lisa was standing on the rail on the far end of the pier and she waved at me.

"Is your mum alright with you coming here with us?" Angie asked as I reached them.

I nodded. "Yeah but I have to be back home before eleven."

Angie smiled. "Same."

I looked at Lisa who was looking at me. I was hoping to God that they both won't ask me about McFly and whether I liked them or not.

"Did you enjoy the funfair then?" Lisa asked. She looked at me as if she wanted me to say something about McFly but I didn't.

"It was alright. Nothing special."

"Are you looking forward to Saturday?"

I scratched the back of my head. "Well … I dunno."

"What?" Angie said, sounding a bit upset. "But you promised us that you'll come with us if we join the band with you."

"Well I'm sorry but my family wants me to go to Brighton for day. It's to do with dad's job, and Mr Humble has given me a detention on Saturday evening," I looked down at the sea. "Besides, the whole band idea isn't going to work."

"I wouldn't bother going to the detention on Saturday. The teacher will forget it by Monday." Lisa said.

I sighed. "I might be going to the concert. I think it depends of what time we get back from Brighton." I remembered mum saying about moving there but I didn't want to mention anything to Lisa or Angie.

Angie walked off to the ice cream stall and brought us three ice creams.

"So, what did you think of McFly then, Kayleigh?" Lisa asked, licking her ice cream after another moment of silence.

I shrugged. "I can't really tell. I'll have to listen to them a bit more too actually judge them."

"No doubt you'll hate them like you did with Busted and Take That."

"I have an idea." Angie said suddenly changing the subject.

Lisa and I looked at her.

"Every Sunday, there's a band night going on in the pub, _The Dolphin _and any bands are able to sign up for it …"

"And you want us to go and play my song, _Too Close for Comfort_ there?" I said finishing her sentence.

"Exactly!"

Lisa shrugged. "Not a bad idea."

"And anyway, Kayleigh, you don't need to ask your family to do this, do you?"

"Well I suppose." I said trying to suppress a smile.

Angie was nudging me. "Is that a smile I see?"

I laughed. "Okay, I'll do it!"

"Now that's the Kayleigh I want to know, not backing out on everything!" Lisa said. I said nothing.

It was eleven at night and we all agreed to sing _Too Close for Comfort_ on Sunday. Lisa said that we should try and write another song too. I got home to find everyone in bed, asleep. I got into my own bed and had a look through the song and read the lyrics.

It was kind of a rock/slow song. I wrote it sometime before James first asked me out. I wrote it in someone else's point of view, wondering what they did wrong to loose the person they loved. I read through the lyrics, realising that my own song had foreshadowed my broken heart and confusion about my split with James. It then gave me an idea to write another song about James. I named it _List of Hatred_. The song listed things I hated about him, yet at the very end; I had listed seven things I loved.

I was pleased with the result of my song and I was looking forward to showing it to Lisa and Angie.

It was close to midnight and I climbed into bed. As soon as I was about to switch the light off, I found the crumpled up McFly poster. I quickly picked it up and shoved it under my pillow.


	4. Chapter 3

**Tuesday 25th March 2004**

It was only another four days till I was going to find out whether I was going to see McFly or go to Brighton with my family on Saturday.

I woke up a little later than usual that morning. I didn't realise I had woken up late until I got down to the kitchen and saw my family sat around the table, eating their breakfast, already dressed.

"Where have you been?" Mum snapped, looking at her watch.

"What?" I mumbled rubbing my eyes, completely unaware.

"You've had half an hours lie in. You've only got forty five minutes till you have to leave this house for school!"

I wanted to shout at my mum, telling her that she should have woken me up instead of letting me sleep in, but I thought it was wise not too. Instead, I poured some Cheerio's into a bowel, sat down at the table and said nothing. My family were munching away noisily. Dad was leaning back in his chair, eating some toast and reading the morning paper. I saw a photo on the front page of the funfair from the night before. I couldn't read what the article said but I noticed that there were two photos, one of people lining up to go on Slammer and another of McFly performing.

Once I had finished eating, I quickly ran up the stairs to have a shower and changed into my school uniform. As I was applying my make up, Tracie walked into our bedroom and leant against the doorframe, glaring at me.

"You'll get caught with make-up on." She said.

I paused for a moment but then carried on applying my mascara.

"Well you get away with it. Even when you're coated with the stuff." I answered.

Tracie opened and closed her mouth a couple of times as if she wanted to say something but never did. She eventually picked up her school bag and stormed out of the room. She ran down the stairs and left the house with my three brothers. I heard dad's car start up and reverse out of the drive.

Once I had finished doing my make up, I looked in my school bag and got out my timetable to see what lessons I had.

**Tuesday**: Double Maths-BREAK-Double Games-LUNCH-Double Science.

Tuesday was always the worst day of the week.

I sighed, picked up my bag and left the house.

Once again, Angie and I met Lisa by the tree on the football field at school.

"Kayleigh's got some good news," Angie said to Lisa as we reached her. "She's written a new song for us to sing on Sunday."

Lisa raised her eyebrows. "Already?"

I nodded as I took out the notebook which I had written the lyrics to _List of Hatred_. I passed it to Lisa and she nodded in approval after reading it.

"I'm guessing you wrote this about James then?" Lisa said, handing it back to me.

"Well spotted." I replied dully as I shoved the notebook back into my bag.

"And the better news is that my mum has booked us to perform at _The Dolphin_ this weekend," Angie said then turned to me. "So there's no way you'll be backing out on us now, Kayleigh."

I laughed. "Well tell her thanks." I said as the bell rang.

We walked towards the locker court to collect our maths books for our lesson with Mr Rixon. Once I had packed my bag for my lessons, I closed my locker door and saw Ms Meyers walking in my direction.

"Kayleigh Slovenia," She called as she noticed me. "You'd better be on your best behaviour in my lesson this afternoon."

I just nodded as she passed me.

"You must be one of Ms Meyer's star pupils, Kayleigh." Lisa said sarcastically as we started walking down to the maths block.

The bell rang at the end of the maths lesson and we all ran out to break. Lisa, Angie and I walked over to the canteen to buy a snack. I brought myself some biscuits and a bottle of flavoured water before joining Lisa and Angie who were sat in the corner of the canteen.

"I wonder if James is going to turn up today." I wondered as I opened the bottle of water.

Lisa looked at Angie and then she looked at me. "I hate to break it to you but …"

"What?" I asked as I took a sip out of my flavoured water.

Lisa darted her eyes to over my shoulder. I turned round and saw James standing in the queue, laughing with Sam. I swallowed the water and turned back round to Lisa and Angie, pretending I didn't know he was there.

"Perfect." I muttered. I ducked my head, wishing I was invisible.

"He's looking right at you." Angie whispered.

"Well don't make it obvious that you're looking at him!" I hissed. "Otherwise we'll grab his attention and he'll want to say something about me." Angie and Lisa just nodded and started to eat their bowel of chips.

A couple of awkward, silent seconds went by and then Lisa said,

"Its all clear, he's gone now."

I turned round to see that he was no longer standing in the queue. "And I thought this was going to be a good day." I mumbled.

"Oh come on Kayleigh. It can't be that bad … can it?" Angie said, tapping my arm.

"Well according to Jenny's note I received yesterday, he's gone and told everyone that I dumped him. He's a _liar_!"

"Why in God's name did he do that?" Lisa asked but I said nothing.

The bell went ten minutes later and we took a slow walk to the changing rooms to change for our P.E lesson.

"I really don't want to do P.E today." Angie groaned as she dropped her school bag on one of the changing room benches.

"That is what you say every Tuesday, Angie." I said as I took off my school tie and hung it up on one of the wall pegs. Silence filled the changing rooms until Chloe Bell and Katy Thompson came in.

"Is everyone ready to do some fun rounders with the boys?" Katy asked in a high-pitched girly voice. The other two girls in the changing room, Samantha and Sarah, looked at them blankly, muttered something to each other and carried on getting changed. I looked over at Samantha and watched her put on her trainers. She looked at me and I quickly looked away. All I wanted was her part-time job at the bowling alley. It was the job I had wanted for a while.

"Oh, you guys are really enthusiastic aren't you?" Katy snapped and slammed down her PE bag on the bench. She never liked it when people didn't respond to what she said. Lisa and I exchanged glances.

Once we were all changed, our PE teacher, Miss Sharpe, came into the changing rooms, holding a register.

"Okay girls, we're going to have a good lesson today. We're playing rounders with some of the boys." She said as she perched on the edge of one of the benches.

Chloe and Katy seemed pretty ecstatic about it but none of us said anything.

"Who are they?" Angie suddenly asked which drew all the attention to us.

"You'll have to wait and see." Miss Sharpe answered as she took her reading glasses off her head and sat them down on the end of her nose before reading out the register.

When we were all ready, Miss Sharpe took us out to the football field and then to my horror James, Sam and their other three friends, Chris, Jordan and Craig were playing throw and catch with rounders balls. I stopped walking.

"I can't play rounders with James." I said bluntly, refusing to go anywhere near him. Lisa pulled my hand and dragged me towards them.

"Don't make a big drama out of it, Kayleigh," She hissed, pulling me along. "You'll make it worse than it already is. Just keep calm and show him that you don't care."

However, once we reached the five boys, James didn't look at all the pleased, but Craig burst out laughing. I ignored him and focused on the bag of rounders bats that were sitting on the damp grass.

Miss Sharpe spent half the lesson making us jog around the field, doing stretches and teaching us the basic rounders skills and rules. It wasn't until Miss Sharpe put us into partners that I was close to running away. Angie had to go with Chris, Lisa went with Sam, Samantha and Sarah went together, Chloe went with Chris, Jordan went with Katy. So that was left with me and James to go together. I saw it coming. Everyone went off in their pairs and started to throw the ball to each other.

"Ohhh, Miss!" James groaned. "Do we have to? I know how to throw and catch a rounders ball! Can't Craig go with her?"

"Because Craig is the best rounders player here and I want to use him as a demonstration," Miss Sharpe snapped. "Anyway, Kayleigh won't bite, she's a lovely girl," She paused for a moment before saying, "Anyway, James, you do need a little more practice on your throwing skills. They're not as strong as they should be."

I snorted subtly as I heard James swear in anger under his breath. Without another word, James stood a few paces away from me and we both started to throw the ball to each other in silence. He looked rather awkward as he constantly looked down at the grass and scratched the back of his head. But I found myself noticing that James wasn't as beautiful as I first saw him. I remembered how I liked his dirty blonde spiky hair and his hazel eyes, but his ugly personality took all the beauty away from him.

The last bell rang at the end of the day. I had to stay behind at the end of the science lesson because Ms Meyers wanted to talk to me about my detention with her on Friday.

"_Yes_ … _blah, blah_ ... _this Friday_ … _blah, working_ … _blah, blah and so on and so forth _…" I never listened to her when she spoke to me. Instead, my eyes were focused on the clock on the wall. I was watching the second hand tick away.

"Are you even listening to me, Miss Slovenia?" Ms Meyers asked, waving her hand in front of my face.

I looked at her blankly and said, "Yes, it's nice to see you too, Miss." Before picking up my school bag and leaving the science block. She didn't call after me.

I walked to the school gates expecting to find Lisa and Angie waiting for me, but instead, I saw Sam standing there. He was watching me as I got closer. I ignored him and casually walked passed him. I could hear his footsteps from behind me, getting closer. Before I had the chance to walk even faster to get away from him, he was walking by my side, looking down at me.

"Did you enjoy rounders today?" He asked. I stopped walking and glared at the pathway. I wanted him to walk away and to leave me alone but he didn't. He too had stopped walking, so I started walking again and said nothing.

The back of my legs had started to ache a little as my walking pace got faster and faster, but Sam grabbed hold of my shoulder roughly and spun me round to face him.

"Kayleigh, we need to talk."

I avoided eye contact and just looked over his shoulder.

There was a long silence until Sam said, "We can stand here all day if you want but you need to say something, Kayleigh."

"What is there to say?" I asked sternly. Sam didn't answer as I glared at him. "If you want to talk to me about James then you're wasting your time. He's a liar and I don't want anything to do with him. Just leave me alone."

"I know he lied."

I narrowed my eyes.

"He told me after our P.E lesson," He pursed his lips. "But to everyone else, you were the one who dumped him."

"Bollocks!" I hissed and started walking off but Sam stopped me.

"Can we just talk this through?" Sam snapped. "My best mate has been an absolute tosser towards you, and I've been an idiot to even think about disliking you because I believed what he told me."

"What did James say about our split because I don't understand why you disliked me?"

Sam sighed. "He sort of made excuses, saying how you said some horrible things to him …"

Sam paused as I raised my eyebrows. He knew I didn't want to know any more.

"Can we just forget about this, Kay?" Sam said after a bit of silence. "Can't we just go back to being friends like we were only a few days ago? Can't we just pretend it never happened and move on?"

I smiled as we both started walking up the street. "I'd happily forget anything that happened between me and James."

Sam and I walked down to Eastbourne pier and talked about everything. I told him about starting up a band with Lisa and Angie and he said that he'd love to see us perform.

We were stood by the railings eating corn dogs. I had noticed that Sam was constantly looking over my head as if he was watching someone behind us. I turned my head but he quickly stopped me and asked if I wanted to go and get some ice cream.

"Sam, who's behind us?" I asked. Sam had a guilty look on his face as I asked him but he didn't reply. "_Sam_?"

He didn't reply but just nodded his head. I slowly turned to see on the far end of the pier was James and Chloe Bell. They were both sat on a bench together, eating chips. He had his arm slung lazily around her shoulders. They were both laughing. James then lifted her chin and leaned in to kiss her, just like he did with me.

I could hear mum's voice ringing in my head, telling me that the popular guys were always the cheaters.

"I'd better go." The words slipped out of my mouth as if I couldn't control them. Without looking at Sam, I put the rest of my corn dog in the bin and walked off the pier back home, tears stinging my eyes.

"How was your day at school?" Dad asked as I entered the kitchen. He was looking at me in the eye as if he was trying to read my thoughts. Thomas and Dan who were both playing snooker glanced up at me before continuing with their game.

"And maybe I could get more than one syllable." Dad continued.

"It was fine." I replied. Dad nodded. "That was three." I then added before starting towards the stairs, but then dad called me again.

"What?" I hissed.

"What's going on with Saturday?"

"How do you mean?"

"Your mother said that you and your friends were planning on seeing McFly instead of coming to Brighton with us."

I rolled my eyes. "I didn't say that I wouldn't go to the Brighton. I was just _asking_ if I could go and see McFly with my friends on Saturday …"

"You do know that I need to go to Brighton for my job. Working in the hospital is very stressful. You do know that, don't you?"

I nodded.

Dad sighed. "So what are you going to do this Saturday then?"

"Go to Brighton with you, come back, and then go and see McFly with Lisa and Angie when we get back …"

"We'll be in Brighton all day.

"Well, why don't I stay home all day then?"

"How about we go back to you keeping your mouth shut or speaking a little less."

I shrugged. "Cool."

Dad didn't look impressed.

"That was one." I added before running up to my room.

Later on that evening, Tracie and I were sat in the conservatory doing our maths homework that Mr Rixon had set us to do. However, Tracie not being a smart girl had to ask me to help her constantly.

"Okay Tracie, what is eight multiplied by six?" I asked as we tried an answer the questions about multiplying decimals.

Tracie looked at me blankly before counting on her fingers. "Erm is it … twenty four?"

I sighed heavily. "No Tracie. Six times eight is forty eight." I said, trying not to lose my temper with her. "Do you even know your eight times tables?"

Tracie shrugged. "Never paid attention in any of our maths lessons."

"Neither did I but even I still know them."

"I don't care." Tracie said casually, looking down at her nails.

I sighed. "I'd love to see someone ask how old you are …" Tracie looked up at me.

I finished off what I was saying, "… but unfortunately you're not smart enough to count that high."

Tracie looked a little taken aback but I just stood up and started to walk out of the conservatory.

"You haven't finished helping me!" Tracie shouted after me.

"Oh you can work it out yourself." I shouted back and walked away. I brushed passed mum, making her drop the cutlery that was in her hands all over the floor.

"Oh, watch it Kayleigh!" She hissed. I ignored her and ran up the stairs. I heard Liam called after me but I just ignored him too. I shut myself in my bedroom and hoped to God that no one would come in. Before falling on my bed and bursting into tears, I took the photo from of James and I off my bedside table and chucked it into the bin.

The view of James kissing Chloe Bell was tattooed on my mind. I couldn't believe after dumping me, he went straight out with one of my sisters best friends.

As I had stopped crying, the phone rang. I looked up at the phone on my bedside table knowing that it would be Joe Carr. I picked up the phone before anyone else could and put it to my ear.

"Hello?" I said, my voice sounding croaky. _Hello, this is Joe Carr. May I speak with David Slovenia? _I could imagine Joe Carr saying.

"Kayleigh, is that you?" It was only Angie.

"Oh, yeah it is. What do you want?"

"There's something I think you should know, and it's not going to be easy telling you this." Angie said but I knew what she was going to say.

"What? The fact the James is now going out with Chloe?" I hissed.

"Oh … you already know?"

I sighed. "I saw them kissing each other on the pier."

"I'm so sorry." Angie whispered.

I shook my head. "Don't be. It's his loss anyway."


	5. Chapter 4

**Friday 28th March 2004**

The week dragged by very slowly and then Friday eventually came, still with no news as to whether I'm going to Brighton or see McFly.

Like every school morning, I left the house to walk to school with Angie while my siblings got a lift in with dad. I managed to steal a bottle of Sunny D from the fridge without mum knowing, to drink on the way.

The word about James and Chloe had spread across the school minutes after I found out and all I heard was:

"_What about the ginger girl he used to date?"_

"_Oh apparently she told him to fu …"_

I didn't dare to listen to what anyone had to say about the rumour that I supposedly was horrible to James before I supposedly dumped him the weekend before.

The last bell rang at the end of our maths lesson and Mr Rixon ushered us out to go home. The year nine's were running around the school building, cheering for joy as they had completed their end of year exams.

"Good luck with your detention." Angie said before giving me a hug.

"Don't worry about me. I'll be okay. Anyway, Sam will be there." I said cheerfully.

Lisa frowned. "I thought that you and he weren't friends anymore."

"Well we've made up as Sam doesn't believe in the crap James says."

Angie smiled at me until I saw James and Chloe walk passed us, hand-in-hand. I sighed and then walked off.

"Okay, meet us by the Band Stand at seven tomorrow." Angie called after me.

"Yeah, sure whatever." I called back and then walked into the main hall. There were two chairs and desks; Sam was sat at one of them. Ms Meyers was standing next to him.

"Kayleigh," She said when I entered. "Was wondering if you were going to skip out on me."

I said nothing as I sat at the other desk beside Sam. I was given a sheet of lined paper.

"Now, I want you to write down '_I will never answer back rudely to a teacher_'five hundred times."

"Oh you're kidding me." I muttered under my breath but Ms Meyers still heard me.

"Be rude like that again young lady and then it'll be one thousand times."

I sighed and looked at the piece of paper. I looked at Sam who was already scribbling something down. I then started to write.

Half and hour of the detention went by and I had only managed to write it two hundred and sixty seven times. My hand was already starting to ache. I looked at my watch and it was only twenty to five. Sam had already finished and was tapping his pen on yhe desk which irritated me. I looked up at Ms Meyers who was reading another copy of _Heat_.

"Miss, I've finished." I lied. She looked at me over her magazine. I stood up and gave her my piece of paper.

"Erm, yeah … I've done too, miss." Sam said and stood up. Ms Meyers snatched the paper out of our hands and then told us to go. Sam and I walked out of the school gates.

"Waste of time." Sam said.

I laughed. "I didn't even finish it. I just said that I've done just to get out."

Sam smiled at me.

"How come you were there with Ms Meyers? I thought we were having our detention with Mr Humble tomorrow evening."

"Mr Hobbs cancelled that detention, saying that it was unfair to keep us behind on a Saturday evening."

"Are you doing anything tomorrow?" Sam asked as we reached to the top of my road.

"I really don't know at the moment. I'm either going to Brighton for the day with my family or I'm going to see McFly with Angie and Lisa."

Sam nodded. "Why are you going to Brighton?"

I sighed and kicked a stone. "We might be moving there." I said dully.

"What? Why are you moving?" Sam asked, sounding a little surprised.

"It's not certain. It's just because of my dad's job. Being a doctor, I guess he has to be transferred to different hospitals," I then paused as we reached my house. "But I don't think it'll happen. My family love it here in Eastbourne, they wouldn't want to move."

We said bye to one another and went our separate ways. I closed the door of my house find mum and dad standing in the hallway, not looking too pleased. Mum had her arms folded across her chest whilst dad had his hands behind his back.

"Where the hell have you been?" Dad hollered.

"School." I replied casually. Mum and dad followed me as I passed them to go into the kitchen. Screaming Lord Thomas was sitting on a counter, eating a packet of crisps.

"Yes I know you've been at school all day but it finished over an hour ago. Where have you been?"

"Kayleigh," Mum said softly. "If you want to hang around with your friends after school, you need to tell us because we worry when we don't know where you are. It's okay on Thursdays because I know all of you like to hang around at the pier after school …"

"Didn't I tell you?" I asked, interrupting mum. "I had a detention after school with Ms Meyers. I thought you would have guessed by now."

Mum and dad looked at each other and groaned.

"What is it with you and getting all of these bloody detentions, Kayleigh?" Dad snapped, crossing his arms. He was still wearing his work uniform

I looked over at Thomas who was slightly giggling.

"Thomas, scram." I hissed. He quickly jumped off the counter and ran up the stairs. I looked back at mum and dad and shrugged.

"It's not my fault that I loose my temper with the teachers and I get loads of detentions from shouting back at them."

"You really need to learn how to control your temper, young lady." Dad said deeply.

"Oh really? It's not like you've tried to control _your_ temper, dad," I snapped as I leant against the pool table. "Why are you getting so frustrated with me when you know that I usually like to go out and about a lot of the time anyway? You know that I constantly leave the house to go for walks."

"Because when you do we know where you are." Mum cried.

"Well you knew that I was at school today. Besides, you should have realised by now that I don't come home normal times on a Friday."

"We believed that you were hanging around with James."

I glared at my parents. "No!" I shouted. "I've been stuck at school in detentions because I can't learn to control my fucking temper!"

"I beg your pardon?" Dad bellowed.

I looked at dad. "You're the one I got my temper from." I then headed towards the kitchen door. I then turned round and said, "Oh and just before you worry anymore, I'm going for a walk." I left the house, not wanting to turn back.

I had no idea where I wanted to walk to. All I knew was that I didn't want to go back home to face my parents. My dad would never let that argument down.

I found myself walking along Eastbourne's promenade and towards the Band Stand. I wanted to have a look at the view from the stand, and wanted to imagine Lisa, Angie and I performing there in front of a huge crowd. However, as I reached the stairs which led to it, I noticed three boys were already there. It wasn't until I heard a strong northern accent did I realise that they were McFly. I looked around the stand and saw them plugging in their instruments. I supposed they were having a rehearsal for Saturday night. Just as I wanted to leave them alone, I turned around quickly but ended up bumping into someone who was standing right behind me.

"Oh erm … sorry." I muttered as I looked up and noticed that it was the blonde member of the band.

"Don't worry about it." He said smiling as he passed me and ran up the stairs. I started to walk back down the stairs until he called, "Hey."

Standing at the bottom of the stairs, I turned and looked back up at him.

"You mind giving us a hand?"

I stared at him, a little puzzled. "What? Why are you asking me?"

"Because you're here, Kayleigh, that's why." He then flashed me a grin. How he even remembered me from the funfair Monday night, I didn't know.

"Go on then." I said and ran up the stairs to join him.

Still smiling, the blonde member lightly put his hand on my back and pushed me towards the rest of the band.

"Hey guys," He said. "We've got some help."

Feeling a little uncomfortable, I glanced around the Band Stand rather then looking at the McFly boys.

"Oh, it's Kayleigh from the funfair!" One of them said who I vaguely remember was called Harry as Angie admitted to liking him.

I then whispered to the blonde one, "What am I supposed to do?"

"If you don't mind, could you help us set up the drums and the sound system?"

I nodded as we reached a pile of boxes.

"I'm Tom Fletcher by the way." He said as he reached out his hand. I shook it. He introduced me to the rest of the band. "Over there is Danny Jones," He pointed to the one I winked at who was stood on his own, plugging in his electric guitar into an amplifier. "And over there is Harry Judd and Dougie Poynter."

Tom and I set up the drums for Harry. Danny ran up to help me when I nearly dropped a bit of the drum kit. Surprisingly, McFly seemed okay with me helping them out. However, I wanted to leave.

"Do you mind if you could set up the soundscapes? Dougie will help you." Tom asked.

I raised my eyebrows. "Shouldn't you have a manager to do this for you?"

Tom looked a little awkward and said, "We do but he's not with us right this moment. It's just lucky you came around."

I didn't reply as I walked towards a little table that had loads of computer-type boxes with electrical wires coming out of them.

It wasn't long till Dougie; the bass player came to help me. Without saying a word, he started plugging in some more electrical wires. His dirty blonde hair was getting in the way of his eyes.

"I'm not meant to be rude or anything but how old are you?" I asked, breaking the silence between us.

Dougie looked up at me and smiled. "Sixteen," He replied. "You?"

"Sixteen in a few weeks."

Dougie nodded went back to plugging in more wires. There was a bit of silence between us and then I asked,

"On Sunday, are you going to _The Dolphin_?"

"Is that a pub?"

"Yeah, it is. It's the pub where bands go up and sing …"

Dougie looked a bit thoughtful. "I dunno. Not sure if we have anything planned for Sunday."

"Oh."

"Why, are you singing there?"

I smiled and nodded. "Me and my two friends who you met at the funfair are performing there Sunday night."

Dougie smiled at me and went silent. "You seem a bit sad, Kayleigh."

I looked at him. "I do?"

Dougie shrugged. "Don't worry we all get our moments," He paused. "What's up?"

"I've just been having a bad week, that's all."

"What's making it bad?"

I sighed, not really wanting to explain everything but the look of plead in Dougie's eyes made me. "Well long story short, my boyfriend dumped me last weekend and is now dating my twin sisters best friend," I sighed. "And I've just had an argument with my parents."

Dougie said nothing but smiled a little.

"Watch us perform now, yeah?" He said. I nodded as he picked up his bass guitar and ran to the rest of the band. I sat down on one of the boxes and watched them perform _Five Colours in Her Hair_. I found myself nodding along to the song and surprisingly enjoyed watching them. I caught Danny's eye a few times and he smiled at me. This time, I felt myself blush.

After the song, they started to sing other songs from their album which hadn't been released yet. McFly wasn't as bad as I thought they were going to be.

It was dinner time and we were all sitting round the dinner table as a family. I looked at the food that was on my plate: broccoli, new potatoes, carrots and cold meat. Everyone was silent as we ate dinner. Mum apologised for the argument but dad didn't speak to me. He just grunted.

"What's wrong, Kayleigh?" Mum asked as I pushed the dinner plate away.

"I'm not hungry." I muttered and leaned back in the chair.

Mum and dad exchanged glances but didn't say a word. My siblings started to flick crumbs at Tracie. Except Liam.

"Kayleigh, about tomorrow," Mum started, once everyone had finished eating. "I was talking to Lisa's mother this morning and she was saying that both Lisa and Angie really want you to come with them to see McFly as you promised them, and she said that they were really disappointed when you said that you're going to Brighton instead," Mum then glanced over at dad's direction but looked back at me. "And your father and I have been thinking this through, long and hard and now we've finally made a decision."

"Tomorrow," Dad said. "You're staying round Lisa's house for the weekend and you can go and see McFly tomorrow evening. Your mother has booked us to stay at Brighton so we'll be there all weekend."

I shook my head. "No," I said. "I don't want to go and see McFly. I've already seen them on Monday at that funfair and to me, that's enough. Anyway I want to go to Brighton. I've never been there before."

Mum and dad looked at each other. Dad rolled his eyes and mum sighed.

"Okay then. If you want to go to Brighton, then you can. I'll have to phone Lisa's mother." Mum said, standing up and collecting all of our plates.


	6. Chapter 5

**Saturday 29th March 2004**

I woke up in the morning to find that no one was in their beds. I sat up and I couldn't hear anything downstairs, apart from the sound of the cars out on the main road. I looked at the clock and realised that it was eleven in the morning. Slightly puzzled, I crawled out of bed and went down to the kitchen.

The house was empty. I called out everyone's names but there was no reply; until I found a note tapped to the fridge.

_Kayleigh,_

_ We've decided to go to Brighton without you. We all know how much you really do want to go to this McFly concert with your friends so we left. By the time you read this, we'll probably be on the train going there or in Brighton already. Your mother has left some Cheerio's out for you to eat for breakfast. And then if you look in the cupboard under the sink, there will be some food for you to eat at lunch. You're not expected to go to Lisa's house till six but they want you to meet them in Little Chelsea at one, so you could do some shopping and buy an outfit for tonight. I've left £40 by the front door to spend your money on. So, we hope you have a wonderful time and we'll see you tomorrow evening._

_Dad_

_P.S Your mother would like you to remember your pleases' and thank you's!_

So my family thought that it would be a wise idea to leave me at home alone while they spent the weekend over in Brighton.

I poured some Cheerio's and milk into the bowel, sat in the sitting room and watched TV. I flicked through the channels, trying to find something but there was nothing on, so I ended up watching a music channel. I didn't understand why my family left me on my own without saying anything. I wanted to go up to Brighton as I had never been before. Brighton was only thirty minutes away from Eastbourne. I wasn't even sure if I really wanted to see McFly live that evening.

The phone rang.

"Hello?" I said gruffly as I picked up the receiver.

"Hey Kay, it's me," It was Angie. "Do you mind if you could meet us at Little Chelsea in half an hour?"

"Angie, I've only just woken up!" I hissed, nearly choking on my breakfast.

"Well hurry up and get ready and meet us in half an hour." She hung up.

I gulped down the rest of my Cheerio's and got into the shower. I came out, fifteen minutes later after washing my hair and I nicked my sisters blow dryer and started to dry my hair. I then got into some baggy jeans and a top which had a graffiti design on the front. I then put my hair up in a messy bun and walked downstairs to the front door. There was forty pounds by the door with a note by it which said: "_DON'T FORGET_!" I picked it up and walked out the house.

The sun was beating down on my face as I walked up the path towards the nearest bus stop. I took a bus into Little Chelsea and saw Lisa and Angie waiting for me.

They both seemed pretty ecstatic that I was there with them.

We walked into a clothes shop to buy ourselves a new outfit to wear at the concert. We spent most of the time trying on a load of different dresses and laughing with each other till we eventually found something we liked and bought it.

We went into loads of other shops and I treated myself to some new shoes and make up. However, Lisa and Angie wanted to take me to the hairdressers.

I was sat in one of the chairs and flicked through a hair magazine as Angie got her hair braded and Lisa had blonde highlights done.

"Are you here to get your hair done or are you waiting for someone?" One of the hairdressers asked. I paused for a second, feeling rather tempted to get my hair dyed, yet I wasn't too sure. I looked over at my reflection in the mirror across the room. My hair had been the same shade of red all my life.

"What sort of colours do you dye hair?" I asked the hairdresser.

"Any colour. What do you have in mind?"

I came out of the hairdressers with my hair dyed a bright fiery red colour. It was a risk and I knew that mum wouldn't be too pleased, but I was happy with the outcome.

It was just after three in the afternoon and we walked down to the pier and brought ourselves some chips and a corn dog each. We stood by the rail, looking out to the sea.

"Do you still feel fed up with boys?" Angie asked after a bit of silence.

I shrugged. "Dunno really. I haven't really been thinking about it."

"There's not a new boy you started to like you haven't told us about?" Lisa asked.

I frowned and shook my head. "What in God's name made you think that?" I asked but Lisa just looked down at her corn dog.

We heard some laughter behind us. Lisa, Angie and I turned round to find Katy Thompson, Chloe Bell and Jess Wells walking up the pier.

"Incoming." Angie mumbled as they noticed us. I saw Jess whispering something to Chloe.

"Wow, what's with the new hair, girls?" Chloe asked. She then looked at me. "Kayleigh, what on earth have you done to _your _hair?"

Lisa looked over at me.

"Do you have a problem with it?" I answered.

Chloe shrugged. "No, just pointing out that you guys look like the grandma brigade."

They all laughed before walking off down to the end of the pier.

"They'll never grow out of their childish comments. I wonder how they'll cope in college when they realise that everyone has stopped kissing their feet." Angie said as she watched them walk away.

It was in the evening and Lisa and I were applying our make-up in Lisa's bedroom. We were sat by her dressing table, looking in the mirror. Angie came out of the bathroom after getting changed and then she looked in the full length mirror which was on the back of Lisa's door. She then came to join us by the dressing table just as Lisa's mum stumbled into the room, with a glass of wine in her hand. We could hear her giggling with her new boyfriend, Jem, downstairs. Lisa looked unimpressed.

"Mum, what are you doing?" She snapped.

Ms Levett giggled as she took another sip of her wine, acting rather drunk and holding onto Lisa's bookcase for support.

"Honey, dinners ready!" Jem called from downstairs. Lisa's eyes narrowed at her mum. She disliked Jem very much.

"Jem is _such_ a great cook. He could teach your dad a few tricks; he'll need it for his future girlfriend. Well, if he's ever going to get one," She laughed again "By the way," Ms Levett carried on. "You and your brother, Josh, will be home alone next Saturday because I'm taking Jem to my salsa class."

Lisa frowned. "Why?"

"Because he's really passionate about it!"

"But dad loves to dance." Lisa mumbled.

Ms Levett started to laugh once again. "Yeah, with two left feet!" She started to dance about, humming to herself. Angie and I tried our hardest not to laugh.

"Honestly mum, just act your age! You're not twelve years old." Lisa snapped as she turned back to the mirror to finish applying her make up.

Ms Levett then lifted her hands up to make a W shape with her fingers. "Whatever," She said. "Your mum's well wicked," She then made an M with her fingers. "You minger!" She then burst out laughing. She mumbled the word minger a couple of times and tapped Lisa on the shoulder before walking out the room.

Lisa didn't say anything afterwards. I knew that she missed her dad dearly.

"I'd do _anything_ to get mum and dad back together." Lisa said after we left the house about an hour afterwards.

I sighed and put my arm round her. "I'd like to see you try." I then started to laugh. "Anyway, cheer up; we're going to see McFly. Aren't you happy about that?"

We walked for a bit till we got to the Band Stand. Lisa and Angie dragged me all the way to the front, pushing everyone out of the way. The audience stands were completely filled up. Some people were holding up banners saying "_I Love McFly."_

I looked down at my watch. I imagined what McFly was feeling backstage. Their adrenalines rushing.

Just then, everyone started screaming as they walked on stage and started to play _Five Colours in Her Hair._

I danced along to the song with Lisa and Angie, thoroughly enjoying myself.

Then once the song was over, everyone started to scream again and I found myself cheering and clapping for the boys.

"Are you guys having a good time?" Tom shouted down the microphone. The screams were uncontrollable and I was starting to get a headache.

Lisa, Angie and I walked away from the Band Stand and along the pier, all giggling, once the concert had finished. I had a packet if jelly tots in my hand and we were eating them along the way. McFly had announced that their first album won't be released till the beginning of July.

"That was absolutely amazing!" Lisa said cheerfully.

"I heard that James Bourne from Busted has been writing some songs with McFly for their new album." Angie said giddily.

I smiled, drank the rest of my Coca Cola and said nothing.

"Now, here's the big question," Lisa said as she but a jacket over her shoulders. "Did you like McFly?"

I went silent and chucked the empty coke can into the nearest bin. I didn't know what to say to them. Did I like McFly? I wasn't too sure myself.

"Well," I started and paused for a moment or two. "I'd rather gag myself over a spoon then listen to McFly again." The words came out of my mouth like a bullet from a rifle. I couldn't stop them. I was being a coward. Somehow, something inside me was telling me that I liked McFly, yet I was scared to tell Lisa and Angie. I wanted to prove them wrong.

"That's exactly what you said about Busted and you've never listened to them."

"Yes I have!" I argued.

"What songs that then?"

I went quiet for a moment. "Erm … _Crashed the Wedding_ …"

"That's only one song and you say that you hate them."

"Well maybe I just don't like McFly!" I hissed. "Half of their songs they sang were about girls and that's why I'm a bit put off with them. I'm sorry but you can't change my opinion on boy bands."

Angie sighed. "Well, you are entitled to your own opinion."

We carried on walking back to Lisa's house. I felt terribly guilty about lying.


	7. Chapter 6

**Sunday 30th March 2004**

I woke up the next morning with a headache. My ears were still ringing a little from the concert the night before. I sat up and found Lisa's tabby cat asleep on the end of my sleeping bag. I kicked it off and glanced at the alarm clock on the bedside table. It was only 11:25 in the morning and our performance at _The Dolphin_ wasn't till six that evening.

I crawled out of my sleeping back and quietly tip toed out of Lisa's bedroom, trying to avoid stepping on Angie who was asleep in her sleeping bag on the carpet. I heard Lisa stir under her bed covers as I stood on a creak in the hallway. I ran downstairs and headed for their ultra-modern kitchen located at the back of their house. Ms Levett, Josh or Jem wasn't around, but they had left us a note which was tapped to the fridge door.

_Girls,_

_I hope you girls had a FABULOUS time last night seeing McFly, (I'll be very surprised if Lisa or Angie comes running up to me saying that Kayleigh likes them). Jem and I are out for the day and Josh is going to an open morning for his university. I've left some corn flakes in the cupboard but if you don't want to have corn flakes, you're more than welcome to make some pancakes if you really want._

_Jem and I wish you girls the best of luck for tonight and I'll be waiting outside to pick you girls up and take you home._

_Lots of love xxxx_

I sighed and walked back up to Lisa's bedroom and crawled back into my sleeping bag which was still warm. I wanted to sleep again.

"Wakey, wakey, Kayleigh!"

It was Angie.

"How long have you been awake for?" I asked, sitting up and leaning against Lisa's bed.

"Since you went downstairs," She replied. "What's for breakfast?"

"Well Ms Levett left us a note saying that we have a choice of either cornflakes or pancakes."

"Well count me out if we're making pancakes. I'm no good with the cooker."

I shrugged. "Fine with me."

There was a bit of silence until Angie scrambled out of her sleeping bag and jumped onto Lisa's bed.

"WAKE UP LISA! WAKE UP! IT'S ELEVEN THIRTY IN THE MORNING!" She shouted.

I could hear Lisa groaning and I jumped on top of her too.

"Would you two get off me?" Lisa hissed, attempting to push us off.

Angie got off the bed laughing. "That was so much fun." She gave Lisa a high-five.

"Pancakes?" I asked.

Lisa groaned and pushed me off the bed. "What?" She asked, rubbing her eyes.

"Do you want pancakes for breakfast?"

Lisa sat up. "Are you going to make them or something?"

"Well your mum said we can."

"Okay, but you're doing the cooking."

I shrugged. "Fine with me."

Half an hour went by and Lisa came downstairs in a yellow strappy top and blue three-quarter length jeans. I was in the middle of frying the pancakes. Lisa came up to me, putting her hair up in a messy bun.

"Wow, this is new," She said, peering over my shoulder. "First time I've ever seen you cook, Kay." She then laughed. She stopped abruptly and nudged me. "C'mon, laugh with me."

I shook my head. "Nahh, you're not funny."

Lisa shrugged and sat on the counter, watching me. We then started chatting and I was completely distracted from cooking.

"So, you're nervous about tonight then?" Lisa asked; swinging her legs to and fro.

"Slightly … I suppose. I don't really get that nervous."

Lisa nodded. We carried on talking about our gig and the conversation led to talking about McFly. However, as I got so distracted away from my cooking, the pancakes had burnt to crisp, and even before I noticed that, they blew up in flames. Lisa and I screamed. I quickly took the frying pan off the stove, yelling, "WHAT DO I DO WITH THIS?"

"I don't know!" Lisa screeched, sounding as panicked as I was.

My first instinct was to run over to the sink and pour cold water over the pan. As I did so, it started crackling. I screamed once more, dropped the pan and fell to the tiled floor. The flame eventually went down and Lisa and I found ourselves laughing uncontrollably.

"You're not supposed to pour water over a flame like that you dumb shit!" Lisa laughed.

"How was I supposed to know? I panicked!" I then looked down at my right hand. It was black.

Lisa had got out an ice pack and wrapped it around my hand. We had cornflakes for breakfast instead.

"Remind me to never let Kayleigh cook in my house ever again." Lisa said.

"Okay, Lisa, at least I wasn't the one who dropped chilli powder on the flame in our Home Ec class in year 8. The whole class was choking to death and we had to be evacuated."

"No, I believe that was me." I heard Angie say.

It was only a matter of minutes till we were about to go on stage and perform to our first crowd. Lisa, Angie and I sat at the side of the pub, reading through our lines. I was more worried about singing _List of Hatred_as it was only recently written and I was singing it as a solo.

Lisa started pacing up and down, wringing her hands nervously. I could feel my heart pounding in my chest as I picked up my electric purple guitar when one of the bartenders announced us onto the small stage. There was applause as the three of us walked on. We sang _Too Close for Comfort_ first. I sang the first verse on my own and Lisa sang the second. While Lisa was singing, I looked out in the audience and I spotted McFly sitting at a table, right at the back. I quickly looked back down as if I didn't notice them. The audience applauded again when we finished the song. It wasn't a very big crowd. There were about 30 people. When everyone went quiet, Lisa said in the microphone,

"This next song is called _List of Hatred_ which was written by our very own guitarist: Kayleigh Slovenia."

I felt a drip of sweat trickle down the side of me face.

I took a deep breath in and started to play my guitar. The audience started to nod their heads to the music.

It was nearly midnight and everyone was leaving the pub. Angie, Lisa and I walked out the back door and stood under a lamppost by the car park. It started to tip it down with rain and there was the odd rumble of thunder. I put my black umbrella up and the three of us huddled under it. We were waiting for Ms Levett to arrive to take us home. I put my guitar up against the lamppost and sat by it on the wet ground. Lisa and Angie joined me.

None of us said anything about our gig.

"That's my mum." Lisa said as a car pulled up beside us. As we started to pick up our bags and instruments, Ms Levett got out the car and stormed up to us, looking rather infuriated.

"Right, who was the idiot who burnt the frying pan and the stove?" She asked spitefully.

We all exchanged looks.

"Is anyone going to own up?" She shouted, "The pan wouldn't just burn on its own!"

"I'm sorry," I mumbled. "It was stupid really. I wasn't concentrating on what I was doing and it caught alight. I got distracted and didn't pay attention to what I was doing. I'm really sorry …"

"Well sorry isn't good enough. That stove was only new and it had cost me a bloody fortune! And those frying pans aren't exactly cheap either!" Ms Levett had both hands on her hips. Lisa and Angie quickly tip toed into the car, not saying a word.

"What do you expect me to do?" I hissed. "Pay for a new stove for you?"

"Young lady, you'd better be careful by what you say!"

"For fuck's sake! Can't I do anything without being told how to control my temper and be careful what I say? I get it enough at home and at school. Getting it from you is the last thing I need."

"You are one ungrateful child, you are, Kayleigh!" Ms Levett pursed her lips. "I always thought that you were better than that. I do remember the horrible, bullying Kayleigh Slovenia you used to be when you were ten years old. Thank God your father changed your ways but sometimes I can't help but think that that old Kayleigh is starting to come back."

"No!" I snapped. A tear had leaked out of my eye. "You know that I'll never go back to the younger me. That was one of the biggest regrets of my life, and you know that, Ms Levett. I'm sorry I can be rude but I do learn that off my dad. We both are very hot headed."

Ms Levett breathed out loudly. "I am disappointed in you, Kayleigh, I really am." And with that, Ms Levett turned round, got into her car and drove away, leaving me behind. I froze on the spot, watching the car drive down the dark road.

There was a loud rumble of thunder which made me jump and the rain became heavier. I put up my umbrella again and started to walk on ahead, the wind blowing in my face. I let my tears roll down my cheeks. I didn't care.

The wind and the rain got heavier and heavier and I started to struggle to walk against it. My house was only a couple of roads away. It wasn't until the wind blew my umbrella inside out till it broke that I was close to giving up. I didn't mean to mess everything up with Ms Levett. I was being clumsy that morning and wasn't paying attention to what I was doing. I couldn't help losing my temper with other people. I carried on walking against the wind, still holding my umbrella to my shoulder, even though it was no use. I was getting soaked in the rain. I wiped my forehead. My hair was sticking to my face and my clothes were stuck to my skin. I glanced down and my black bra was seen clearly through my t-shirt.

I heard a car pull up behind me and someone getting out the car.

"Kayleigh?"

I recognised that voice. I recognised the northern accent.

I turned round and saw Danny standing by a silver car, holding an umbrella above his head.

"What are you doing out here?" He asked.

"Walking home." I replied, my voice trembling.

"Could I give you a ride?"

I shook my head. "I only live a couple of roads down." I gesture behind me.

"Well, at least take my umbrella."

"I already have one." I said, pointing at my broken one.

"You'll catch a cold in this weather, and you wouldn't want to ruin your beautiful singing voice."

I froze looking at him, not knowing what to say.

"Come on, I'll even lend you my jacket."

I looked up at the sky as there was another loud rumble of thunder.

"Why don't you toss that lightning rod away and get in the car." Danny said, laughing slightly.

I smiled weakly. "Thank you." I chucked my broken umbrella into the bin as Danny grabbed hold of my hand and pulled me into the back of his car. He closed the door and started to drive on.

I directed Danny towards my road.

The car was warm and Danny had some music playing softly.

"You and your band were pretty good this evening." He said, looking at me through the review mirror.

"You think?" I asked.

"Yeah, I really liked the first song."

I raised my eyebrows. "You're the first the ever say that." I said as I took my blue fluffy scarf off.

"How do you mean?" Danny asked, turning the radio down.

"I wrote the song a while ago and have sent it to music companies, but no one accepted it."

"Well at least you try. It's better than nothing."

I sighed as I realised that I was getting the car seats very wet.

There was a moment of silence as I tried to think of a question to ask Danny. "Erm … how long are you staying in Eastbourne for?"

Danny looked pensive for a second or two before saying, "We've got about five weeks left till we're going back to London."

I nodded as Danny parked into my driveway.

"You sure you're gonna be okay?" Danny asked as I went to open the car door.

"I'll be fine. Thanks again." I said and smiled. Danny smiled too.

"No problem. It was really nice talking to you, Kayleigh."

I just smiled again and didn't reply to his comment. I thanked him once again before getting out the car and running to the front door, realising that my views on McFly had changed completely.

However, as I tried to sleep that night, all I could think about was Danny.


	8. Chapter 7

**Monday 31st March 2004**

Mum was sat on the end of my bed when I woke up.

"Next time you want to dye your hair a different colour, _ask_ me. Don't do it on your own accord." She said sternly.

I grumbled as I sat up in bed. My siblings were already out of bed.

Mum looked at me as I rubbed my eyes. "How were McFly?" She then asked.

I shrugged. "Terrible."

"Didn't you like them?" I said nothing but she knew the answer.

Mum then left the room without saying a word. I scrambled out of bed to have a shower and changed into my school uniform. I went down to the kitchen to find dad sat at the table, eating his breakfast and reading the newspaper. My siblings were in the lounge.

"Kayleigh," Dad said as I poured myself some cheerio's. "As you probably know, it's yours and Tracie's birthday in five weeks time, your mother and I would like to know what you plan to do."

I hesitated for a moment before saying, "Does Trace have any plans?"

Dad shook his head, not taking his eyes off the paper.

"Can I have a party?" I asked after a long pause of silence.

Mum who had just walked into the kitchen said, "Yes, you can have some of your friends over if you want …"

"No," I said. "I mean a proper party in a club."

Dad folded his paper. "In a club? You're not old enough to get into a club."

"Yeah but you could hire one for me, couldn't you?"

"And who would you invite to this _big_ party of yours, Kayleigh?" Mum asked as I sat at the table and started to eat my Cheerio's. "Don't forget its Tracie's birthday too so whatever you do, Tracie does too."

I said nothing and carried on eating.

I left the house once again with a bottle of Sunny D. The sun was out and the weather was warm. I was thinking about having a big party for my sixteenth birthday but mum and dad never agreed with anything I wanted to do.

Before I left, mum reminded me that I had a job interview with Burger King that evening. Had completely forgotten about it as I had applied for a job position a few weeks back. I only applied because they needed Saturday staff. However, I still wanted to get a job as a waitress at the bowling alley.

As I got closer to Angie's road, I heard someone call my name. I turned round to see Uncle Robbie behind me. He ginned broadly and walked towards me with his arms out stretched in front of him. He grabbed hold of my shoulders and gave me a kiss on the cheek.

"How's my lovely niece?" He asked.

"Err, yeah. I'm … fine thanks. Yourself?" I said, pulling away from him.

"Brilliant!" He said with a massive grin as he finally let go of me. "So, your mother's been telling me something …"

"Look, its lovely seeing you again, Uncle, but I'm meeting my friend in a minute and I need to get to school …"

"… That you went to see McFly on Saturday evening instead of going to Brighton with your family."

I sighed and nodded.

Uncle Robbie chuckled, his shoulders moving up and down. "I thought you didn't like boy bands, Kayleigh."

"I don't."

Uncle Robbie raised his eyebrows. "Did you like them?"

"No!" I snapped.

There was a bit of silence for a couple of seconds,

"Have you heard about anything from that ex of yours?"

I glared at Uncle Robbie, shook my head and walked away.

It was 'Music week' at school where all students would have to do a project on a chosen practitioner. They would either do an essay, speech or write a piece of music related to the chosen practitioner. We could pick any music artist from the twentieth century.

I was in a double English lesson with Miss Wragg. I looked at the loud ticking clock and it was only five minutes till the bell went for lunch. We were in the middle of writing a practise assessment of Macbeth. I glanced at Lisa who was flicking through her Macbeth script to look for a quote.

"Kayleigh, is there something I can do to help?"

I looked up from my work and looked at Mrs Wragg.

"I've finished." I replied

"You've been sat there for most of the lesson, what have you been doing?"

"I've finished." I repeated.

The bell rang and everyone stood up and put their stuff away. Mrs Wragg allowed the rest of the class to leave but asked me to stay.

"Kayleigh, you do know that it's only a matter of weeks till you begin your GCSE exams?" She asked.

I just nodded as she picked up my work.

"Maybe in class time, you just be using you ears and your brain a little more."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked as I swung my bag on my right shoulder.

"Well lately I've noticed that you've been in that little world of yours and not concentrating on your work," Mrs Wragg walked to the front of the classroom. "And I'm not the only teacher that's realised," She sat down at her desk, put my essay at the bottom of the pile and put on her glasses. "You may go, Kayleigh."

I left the classroom without a word. Lisa was standing outside waiting for me. She raised her eyebrows when she saw me and said nothing.

Lisa and I were stood in the queue in the canteen to buy lunch.

"Any ideas on what to do for Music Week this year?" Lisa asked as we got further down the line. "I was thinking that the three of us should do something together as a band. Perhaps write a song or something."

I realised that I hadn't told my parents about our gig last night, nor did I say anything about my argument with Ms Levett.

"How's your mum?" I asked.

Lisa froze and then said bluntly, "Still not happy with you."

I said nothing as I picked up a plate of mashed potato and cheese, and paid the dinner lady. Lisa and I joined Angie who was sat on a table in the corner of the canteen on her own.

"McFly are signing copies of their single in HMV this evening," Angie said as we sat down. "So I thought that it would be nice if we go together."

"Well I'm with you. I want to talk to them again like we did last week …"

"Oh really?" A voice came.

We all turned round to find Tracie, Katy and Jess standing behind us.

The three of us exchanged glances.

Tracie laughed. "Kayleigh wouldn't be caught dead there!"

"I'm not even going anyway." I mumbled and I stirred my slushy mashed potato with a fork, making it scrape the bottom of the plate.

Tracie, Katy and Jess laughed. We didn't understand what they found so amusing.

"By the way girls, I wouldn't get your hopes up too much," Jess Wells started to say. "It's highly unlikely McFly would find _you_ girlies good looking."

"Sorry to burst your bubble, Jess, but we've already got there before you," Lisa smirked. "We met them at the carnival last Monday _and _they talked to us. They even asked for our names."

I wondered if Lisa or Angie saw McFly in our audience at the gig.

Katy glanced at me before laughing. "Sure they did," Katy said sarcastically. "Besides, Jess has talked to one of the lead guitarists, Danny Jones, and they've been proper flirting with each other!"

I looked at Jess who flicked her blonde crinkly hair off her shoulders. Tracie said nothing. She was looking down at her feet.

"They are so immature." Lisa hissed as they left. Angie agreed.

I just stayed quiet thinking about what Katy said about Danny and Jess flirting with each other. I then started to think about last night when Danny drove me home from the pub. I hadn't told anyone that.

I shook my head, not really caring, however a part of me felt a little jealous of Jess being with Danny.

I was being silly.

I looked around the canteen and then I saw two of James' mates, Chris and Jordan walk in. I quickly stood up and picked up my water bottle.

"Where're you going?" Lisa asked with her mouth full of pasta.

"To my locker." I muttered.

"Oh, okay. We'll meet you there then." Angie said.

I smiled weakly and walked off quickly hoping to avoid Chris and Jordan. I rushed into the girls toilets and hoped that they would go away. The toilets were empty. It wasn't until the door opened that I rushed into a cubical. I sat on the toilet and lifted my feet up so no one could see them. I didn't know who had come in but I hoped they would leave.

When the girls started to laugh, I realised that it was Tracie and her girlfriends. I tried to lock the cubical door but I couldn't do it subtly.

"James was talking to me," I heard Chloe say. "He said that he only went out with Kayleigh for the sex."

Tracie laughed. "Who would want my sister for that?"

"I dunno but James said that he didn't love her. Apparently she always complained about being a nobody … whatever she means by that."

"Do you think her sex was any good?" Jenny asked.

There was a pause. "James never said, but I don't care. He's mine now."

That was when my pen fell out of my blazer pocket and rolled across the tiled floor.

"Fuck!" I hissed and then quickly covered my mouth with my hand.

There was silence. The cubical door swung open.

"Well look who it is." Katy said and laughed.

Tracie looked rather irritated. "What are you doing here?" She snapped.

I said nothing as I slid off the toilet seat and pushed them out the way to leave.

"Alright, calm down!" Jenny snapped as she stumbled backwards a little.

I opened the door to leave when Jess said, "She's probably mad about me and Danny. Silly bitch!"

I froze. "What made you think I care?" I asked.

They all exchanged glances.

I shook my head. "People like you are the reason why we have middle fingers."

And with that, I left them and headed to the lockers. Lisa and Angie were already at their lockers, packing their bags for the next lesson.

"What took you so long?" Lisa asked, as she applied some foundation to her face.

"I went to the toilet." I said casually as I shoved my English, Maths and Science books in my locker.

"There he is." Lisa said, dreamily. I closed my locker and saw Sam stood in the distance, looking at us. "Well see you later girls." Lisa walked up to him. He smiled when she reached him, put an arm round her shoulders, kissed her on the forehead and they walked off together.

"Angie," I said as she stood next to me. "Am I missing something?"

"Didn't you know?"

"Know what?"

"In the first break, Sam asked Lisa out."

I glared at Angie. "So I spent a whole double English lesson with her and she never said a word to me."

Angie shrugged. "Well, I thought that she would have."

"Well she didn't"

"Did you know that she fancied him?" Angie asked.

"No," I said. "Nor did I know that Sam would ask _her_ out."

Angie shrugged once again as we started to walk to our next lesson: History.

I managed to escape Mr Humble's RS lesson when the last bell rang without getting into an argument or getting a detention. Lisa was waiting for us.

"So," I said when the three of us walked out of the school gates. "A certain someone here hasn't said anything about this new boyfriend of hers." I looked at Lisa who went red in the face. She started to giggle.

I laughed with her and pushed her slightly in a friendly way. "I'm happy for you."

"So will you go to HMV with us to see McFly?" Lisa asked, changing the subject away from her and Sam.

"No."

"Suit yourself."

We said bye to one another and went our separate ways. Lisa and Angie walked towards the town centre and I took a walk down the promenade. I fumbled in my blazer pocket and found some spare coins. I wanted to buy a corn dog.

"Hey, Kayleigh!"

I turned round so quickly I nearly fell off my feet. Dougie was sat down on the bench nearest to me, smiling with a bag of chips on his lap. He then gestured me to join him.

"What are you doing here?" I asked as I perched on the bench next to him. "I thought you were meant to be in HMV signing copies of your single."

Dougie shrugged. "I'm not meant to be there till 5. I've got another half an hour." There was a pause before Dougie said, "You were good last night."

I looked up at him and smiled. "You think?"

"Yeah." He screwed up the bag and chucked it into the bin which missed. He looked at me as he put elbow on the bench.

"Well, you weren't too bad yourself." I said nudging him. Dougie smiled.

There was another long silence before Dougie said,

"Do you know a girl called Jenny Freewood?"

I rolled my eyes. "She's my twin sister's best friend."

"You seem to hold a grudge against her."

I looked down at my shoes. "We aren't friends," I looked up at Dougie. "Why did you ask? Do you know her?"

"A little; not much. We met her and her friend, Jess, after our gig. Jess and Danny seemed to have got a little cosy with each other."

I chewed on my lip, a rush of jealously ran through me. "Did you like them?"

"Can't tell for sure. We've only met them once." He then stood up.

"Where're you going?" I asked.

"I'd better start getting back to HMV," He then looked at me. "Coming?"

I said nothing, stood up and took a walk with Dougie to the town centre.

"What was the name of the second song that you sung last night?" Dougie asked.

"_List of Hatred_."

"Is it about your ex that you told me about?"

I nodded.

"I liked it. It was a good song."

As we got closer to the town centre, I could hear girls screaming for McFly in the distance.

"When will I see you again?" I asked. "Danny said that you've got five more weeks till you go back to London and …" I paused, not wanting to say more.

Dougie pondered. "Well, have you got any plans for this evening?"

"I have a job interview with Burger King later."

"What about this weekend?"

"I think I'm free."

"Well me and the boys are gonna be down at Eastbourne's Lido to do a bit of swimming. You could join us and bring your friends if you want."

I smiled. "We'll see."

"Okay, give us your number and I'll text you."

I got a scrap bit of paper out of my inside pocket in my school blazer and quickly scribbled down my mobile number.

Once I gave it to him, Dougie smiled and then pushed me slightly. "Now get lost and have your job interview."

I pushed him back. "And you get lost with all of your screaming fans."

Dougie laughed. "Good luck with your interview."

"Good luck with your fans." I said and then we walked away. I walked quicker and quicker till I started running home.

I was sat in the passenger seat of the car. Mum was driving me back home in silence. I couldn't see out the window as it was dark outside but I could hear the rain falling.

I was given a place at Burger King and my first day of the job was on Wednesday as it was an inset day. After that, it was every Saturday.

Somehow, I found myself thinking about Danny. I couldn't seem to stop thinking about him; the way he drove me home, yet I couldn't stop thinking about him being with Jess.

"Mum." I said as an idea popped into my head.

"Uh – huh." Mum mumbled as we turned into our road.

"Tomorrow at school, we get to sign up to join different sport teams and instead of doing hockey like I've always done, I was thinking about joining the swimming team."

Mum burst out laughing.

"I don't get it, why you laughing?"

"What's made you change your mind all of a sudden?" Mum asked. "You've done hockey every year at school and you've always been team captain. Why do you want to do swimming?"

"What's so bad about me doing something different?" I snapped. "You laughed when I said that I wanted to start a band with Lisa and Angie and now you're laughing at this."

"Face it, Kayleigh, when was the last time you swam?"

I shrugged my shoulders. I couldn't remember.

"Is this to impress that lad from McFly?" Mum asked as parked on the driveway.

I looked up. "Huh?"

"Y'know, Danny Jones from McFly. The one who took you home last night."

"How did you find that out?"

"I saw you get out his car last night."

"Mum, he just offered me a lift home. That was all."

"How old is he?"

"The same age as me." I lied, knowing that he was really eighteen.

"What, sixteen?" She paused a little. "Looks a little older then that."

"I don't even fancy him if that's what you're thinking. I don't even _like_ McFly."

"Don't join the swimming team, Kayleigh," Mum said soothingly. "Go and join the hockey team again. It's what you love to do, isn't it?"

I said nothing as I climbed out the car and into the house.

Dan and Thomas were sat on the floor in the lounge, playing a game of _Slam_, while Tracie was sitting on the sofa, talking to someone on the phone. I sat on the other end of the sofa and turned the TV on. I flicked through the channels and ended up watching Eastenders.

"Does anyone want any tea, coffee or hot chocolate?" Mum asked as she hung her grey coat on a coat hanger.

"Hot chocolate please." Dan and Thomas said at the same time. They then slammed their hands on the ground shouting "_Slam_!" One of them would groan as they had lost the game and the other would cheer. Then they would play again. Mum looked at me and rolled her eyes. They both played that game nearly every evening.

Liam came into the sitting room as Dan slammed the ground and won the game again. Liam too rolled his eyes and sat on the sofa next to me, munching on a big packet of Doritos. Without taking my eyes off the telly, I grabbed a handful of Doritos and started eating.

"Are you gonna sleep in the tent tonight?" Liam asked. I nodded as Tracie screamed in excitement after ending the phone call.

"Oh my god!" She squealed.

"What is it now?" Thomas asked while putting loads of cards on one pile.

"Paul has just asked me out!"

I looked at her. "What? Joe Carr's son?"

Tracie squealed as she started to jump up and down. She then picked up the phone and ran up to our bedroom. I took more Doritos as my mobile phone buzzed in my back jean pocket. It was a text from Dougie asking how my interview went and that they're going to Eastbourne's Lido on Saturday. I texted back saying that I got the job at Burger King and that I was working on Wednesday.

Dad came into the lounge wearing mum's pink slippers. He picked up a newspaper and looked at me.

"How was the interview?" He asked.

"I got the job." I replied.

"Well done. And that was more that three syllables you said." He left the room. I sighed and looked at Liam who was still munching away at his Doritos. Then Thomas slammed his hand on the floor, stood up and started to run round the room, screaming as he won the game for the first time.


	9. Chapter 8

**Tuesday 1st April 2004**

The bell rang for the end of the first break and I walked into the girls changing room. There were lists outside the changing rooms and despite what mum had told me, I wanted to sign up for the swimming team.

"Have a good time in swimming!" Lisa laughed as I took out my goggles. I felt somewhat uncomfortable wearing the navy blue swimming costume we had to wear for school as it was too tight.

I frowned and folded my arms. "Do you find it funny?"

"No, it's just that I know you'll come back to join the hockey team," Lisa said smugly. "Besides, someone else will take your spot as the team captain."

"Come on, Lisa, at least give me a little support."

"Well have fun with James and Craig." Lisa sniggered and walked out the door and onto the field. I looked at Angie who just shrugged and followed Lisa. I turned around and walked the opposite direction, over to where the swimming pool was.

As I got there, I saw that there was a group of boys standing by the deep end of the pool. All of them looking at me. James whispered something to Craig. Our swimming coach, Mr Keating, turned round and smiled at me.

"Kayleigh Slovenia!" He said cheerfully. "I'm glad you've joined us."

I said nothing as I walked closer to them, but kept a smile on my face. My knees were trembling. Everyone's attention turned to Mr Keating as he started to talk.

I dropped my goggles accidentally on the floor and they slide under the lifeguard seat. I crouched onto the tiled floor and crawled under it to pick my up goggles. As I grabbed them, I miss-judged where I was and smacked my head on the seat as I stood up. My knees buckled under me as I fell in the pool.

I couldn't remember what happened next but I found myself lying on the tiled floor by the swimming pool. My vision was blurred but I could just about see someone's fuzzy face lean in closer to mine.

I recognised the shape of their lips. Their soft touch … it was James.

As he pulled away, my vision came back to me and there was a cheer. I looked at James who smiled. Mr Keating bent down beside me and helped me up.

"Well done, James," He said. "You saved her life."

My head was pounding and I thought I was going to be sick.

Mr Keating ordered the boys to do fifty laps and took me outside.

"That was a nasty bump there, Miss Slovenia," Mr Keating said as we left the swimming pool. "I think I'll take you to the medical room to sort you out …"

"No sir, I'm okay." I said, wriggling away from his grip.

"Kayleigh, you smacked the back of your head on a lifeguard seat and nearly drowned."

"I'll be okay. I feel perfectly normal. I'm going to the hockey team." I hesitated for a moment before running off to the girls changing room. I quickly dried myself, got out of the swimming costume and got changed into my PE shorts and vest. I then tied my wet hair up in a messy bun. I felt a little wheezy but I ignored that as I picked up a hockey stick from the corner of the room and ran out to the field. There were loads of girls standing by Miss Sharpe.

"Kayleigh, my star hockey player is here!" Miss Sharpe said cheerfully when she saw me. "Where've you been?"

"I don't think I'm up for swimming." I replied. Everyone looked at me. I felt a little unstable on my feet.

"Well I'm glad that you've come because someone else would have taken your place." Miss Sharpe said as she gave me a red badge which said, _Team Captain_.

Lisa, Angie and I sat in the canteen at lunch, eating mashed potato and cheese.

"So you were nearly dead and James gave you mouth to mouth to save you?" Angie asked as I told them what had happened.

I nodded. "I don't understand."

"Just be thankful he saved your life," Lisa said. "It was a little clumsy of you."

"I dropped my goggles." I said flatly.

"How are you feeling?" Angie quickly asked, stopping us from starting an argument. I sighed and shook my head.

"Could be better."

Instead of science, Lisa, Angie and I had a music lesson together last period due to it being 'Music Week'. Our teacher, Mr Smallcombe, asked us if we had any plans.

"We've started a band together and we had our first gig Sunday night." Angie explained.

Mr Smallcombe raised his eyebrows. "Girls, that's fantastic! What are you called?"

"We haven't really thought of a name yet." Lisa said.

Mr Smallcombe sat in his leather chair and then stood up again. "Tell you what," He said. "Thursday, when you three girls have Music on the first lesson, bring in your instruments and we can see if we could write another song for you to sing on the music show Friday night."

Lisa, Angie and I exchanged glances.

"Perform in front of the school?" Angie asked.

Mr Smallcombe nodded. "What do you think?"

"I'm waiting for you both to thank me for starting up the whole band idea." I said as we left the school gates. Then we laughed.


	10. Chapter 9

**Wednesday 2nd April 2004**

My alarm went off later than usual. Some jazz music was playing on the radio. It was an inset day; therefore, I had the day off school where I could sleep for as long as I wanted. However, Thomas burst into the room and jumped up and down on my bed singing,

"_Wake up Kayleigh, welcome the morning. Wake up Kayleigh, have a cup of tea_." He then jumped down and gave me a cup of tea. I groaned loudly, sat up, grabbed the tea and started to drink it.

"Have fun spending the day off at Burger King, Kayleigh." Dan said who climbed out of his bed.

I nearly choked on the tea. "Huh?"

"It's your first day of the job today, isn't it?"

I said nothing a sipped my tea. I had forgotten all about work.

Mum entered the bedroom and shooed Thomas and Dan out. She sat on the end of my bed and gave me a _Smash Hits _magazine which had a photo of McFly on the front cover. Along the bottom it mentioned that there was an interview with each of them about, their music, new album, what's it's like in Eastbourne and girls. I flicked through the magazine but didn't bother to read it.

"I thought this would perhaps interest you, maybe," Mum said, and then started to stroke my hair. "How are you feeling from yesterday?"

"Better."

"I was worried about you when school called me about it," She sighed. "But your music teacher, Mr Smallcombe, said that you, Lisa and Angie were going to perform at the school's music show Friday night," She pursed her lips. "You never said anything about doing a gig at _The Dolphin_ on Sunday."

"That's because you would have tried to stop me if I told you beforehand."

"To be honest darling, I'm fine with you and your friends signing together but I don't really like the idea of you becoming a band."

"Why?" I asked.

"Well you'll skip college and you'll be living up in London with your band, and then when you turn into your late twenties, you'll think that you have wasted you life away."

I rolled my eyes and said nothing.

"Why do you want to be in a band, Kayleigh?"

"I don't do why." I muttered, glancing down at the magazine sitting on my lap.

Mum sighed, stood up and headed for the door.

"Mum." I called. She turned round to look at me. "For my birthday party this year, can I have a DJ?"

Mum rolled her eyes. "Darling, we've already talked about this and you're not going to have a party in a club for your sixteenth birthday. You can have some mates round for a sleepover or something," She paused for a moment. "Just remember that you are a twin and that you and Tracie will have to decide what to do together."

I started my shift at Burger King at midday. My boss, Mel, introduced me to all the staff and no one made me feel welcome at all. They all glared at me as I smiled at them and reached my hand out to shake theirs. No one said a word to me. I was given my uniform which I was ordered to change into before I started working. I had to wear a blue and red shirt with a badge pinned besides the left breast pocket saying: "_Hi_! _My name is Kayleigh_!" and I had to wear a cap which had the Burger King logo on it.

It was already an hour into my shift and I was bored. I did not like standing behind the counter and saying: "Would you like fries with that?" to every customer. I had lost all motivation and every five minutes, I looked up at the clock, wishing the time would go by quicker.

"Can I help you?" I asked gruffly as four boys came up to me. They ordered four king size cheese burgers, fries and four large cokes. I typed their order into the cash register and looked at the price. "Okay, that'll be £12.75 then." I looked up and stood in front of me were Danny, Harry, Tom and Dougie, all smiling broadly. It took me a couple of seconds to register who they were. "You're _joking_." I muttered.

Harry passed me the money as the rest of the boys took their food and went to sit on a table in the middle of the restaurant. It wasn't long till we rotated round our working positions. I was on cleaning duty.

I reluctantly picked up a damp cloth and started cleaning the tables. Tom called my name and gestured me to join them.

"What are you guys doing here?" I asked as I started wiping their table to look like I was doing my job.

"We'd thought that we would check up on you on your first day of the job." Harry said.

I glanced at Dougie. "Thanks for telling them."

"By the way, Kayleigh, your band was really good Sunday night," Tom said, picking up his cola. "I really liked the first song. What was it called?"

"_Too Close For Comfort_."

There was a bit of a silence until Dougie picked up a chip and examined it.

"The chips taste a bit off." He said.

I took one of his chips and tasted it. "Mmmm, they're gorgeous. What's wrong with them?" I said.

Dougie shrugged and then glanced at Mel who was coming over to me.

"You are not permitted to leave your work station Miss Slovenia." Mel said deeply.

"Sorry, I was just talking to these boys," I said and pointed to Dougie. "He doesn't like the chips."

"You are not allowed to leave your work station. Now _move_." Mel hissed and walked away.

I groaned. "This is me, a bloody dinner lady." I hissed and the turned my back on them and started to walk forward.

"I'll have some extra salt and ketchup with my food." Tom called after me.

I laughed and shook my head. "I'm so gonna kill you afterwards."

Tom laughed.

Twenty minutes went by and I did nothing else but stand in the corner and watch McFly eat their food, pretending that I was doing work. Once they had finished, I walked over their table and piled their rubbish on one tray.

"So, how's your first job?" Harry asked.

"I think I might be quitting this job in a few days time." I said as I put their drinks and rubbish onto the tray.

"Don't blame you." Danny finally said. I looked up at him and smiled. He smiled back just as soon as two people walked in.

"Incoming." Tom muttered. I looked up and saw Chloe and James walking in hand-in-hand.

"Oh _bollocks_!" I hissed under my breath

"What?" Dougie asked.

"Look at what the cats dragged in." I muttered turning my back to James and Chloe. McFly all looked at them as they went to the counter to order food. James turned round and he looked at me, frowned and then turned away.

"That's your ex?"

I nodded. I had an urge to mess up their date, but I knew that revenge wasn't always such a good idea and that I should just leave them to it. However, whenever I looked at James, I just remembered him kissing me the day before to save my life.

I picked up a wet mop and started to clean the floor. I just wanted them to leave.

"What are _you_ doing here, Kayleigh?"

I looked up and saw James and Chloe, looking at me, holding a tray of food.

"Working." I replied bluntly.

Chloe burst into fits of laughter. James looked a little uncomfortable. "You work here?" She laughed even louder. I saw McFly turning to watch us in the corner of my eye. "How much do they pay you to say, 'Would you like fried with that'"

I said nothing and pushed passed her.

"Pathetic." I heard Chloe mutter to James. I turned to look at her.

"It takes one to know one, Chloe," I snapped. "I just don't bother wasting my time with people like you."

"Tracie was saying about you wanted a big party for your birthday," Chloe stepped towards me. "As if anyone would want to go to _your _party."

I narrowed my eyes. "Why do you even care?" Chloe and I were face to face. I raised my eyebrows. "At least I have the decency to cover up my breasts and bum when going out." I indicated to her very low cut top and mini skirt.

Chloe slapped me. Across the face. Smack.

There was silence in the restaurant. All the customers and turned their attention to us. James did nothing but subtly eat his burger.

I kicked her in the shin as hard as I could. She squealed and clutched onto her shin. Before I knew it, we had started a fight. Chloe had pounced on me. She started pulling my hair, biting me, slapping me and digging her nails into my skin. I hit her back. Everyone in Burger King had got up off their seats and crowded around us. James did nothing.

"You bitch!" Chloe said repeatedly, until I pushed her off.

The fight didn't last long till one of my co-workers split us apart. James and Chloe were sent out and I was taken to the manager's office.

I was fired. On my first day. The manager fired me and ordered me to hand in my badge and uniform. I did so, not uttering a word.

"She did start it though." I said before leaving.

The manager didn't reply but just ushered me out. I didn't blame him for sacking me on my first day of the job, yet I was pretty thankful.

As I walked out the door, I saw James leaning against the wall on his own. He looked at me but I carried on walking away.

"Kayleigh, do you mind if I can have a word for a minute?" He asked. I hesitated for a moment before turning to him.

"Go on then." I said flatly. There was a long silence. James looked a little stuck for words. "We can stand here all day, James, but you're going to have to point out that you're in the wrong sometime soon."

"I know I lied to everyone."

I raised my eyebrows and folded my arms.

"Yet you deserved it, Kayleigh, you really did," James snapped. "I got so fed up with you complaining about being a nobody. I mean, what the hell was that all about?"

I laughed slightly. "Well, that just shows how much you really didn't know much about me at all."

"I must have been blind to have asked you out in the first place."

"Did you know that you were going to go out with Chloe before you asked me out?" I asked. "Because right now, I just feel used."

James didn't answer.

"To be honest, I don't even know why I'm even bothering to talk to a liar and a user," I then backed away. "Just do me a favour and leave me alone because I certainly do not want anything to do with you ever again." And with that, I turned on my heel and walked away. I didn't dare to turn round or anything, I just walked briskly up the road, getting further and further away from Burger King.

As I got halfway down the road, I heard someone call my name. However, I recognised the northern accent and I knew it wasn't James. I turned to see Danny running towards me. I smiled gleefully.

"Danny," I said as I started to walk up to him. "What're you doing here? I thought you would've gone with the rest of the boys?"

Danny smiled as he reached me. "I just wanted to make sure that you're okay after that fight."

I nodded. "I'm fine," I replied. "The manager fired me but I'm not too bothered."

Danny and I took a walk round Eastbourne. He told me the story of how he met Tom, Harry and Dougie and how they formed a band. We walked down the stony beach and towards the section of the beach where there were small rowing boats sitting on the stones.

"So, are glad you came down here?" I asked.

"Yeah," Danny said. "Have you always lived here?"

I nodded. "Have done all my life."

Danny smiled. "I heard someone saying that Eastbourne is the new Brighton."

I paused and started to laugh. "That's silly."

"It's a lot more peaceful down here then it is in London. Tom and I always like to find a peaceful spot while song writing."

"What sort of music are you influenced by?"

"There's a mix selection really. Mainly the Beatles and the Beach Boys."

"My Uncle Robbie is a huge fan of the Beatles. Whenever I go round to visit him, he always plays their records and spends the day singing along."

"He has good taste."

I nodded and laughed a little. We walked back on ourselves in silence. I looked down at my watch and it was getting close to four in the afternoon.

"I'd better get back home; otherwise my parents would start worrying if I'm home any later." I said.

Danny nodded. "So, maybe I'll see you around?"

"Yeah, maybe," I turned to go but I then turned back to look at him. "When …. where when will you next see me?"

The corners of Danny's lips curled up into a smile. "Maybe when you finish school tomorrow?" he suggested.

"At the pier?" I knew that every Thursday, everyone would go down to the pier to hang out.

Danny agreed and said bye before we went our separate ways.

I decided to take a detour home. I walked through the town centre, trying to find a HMV. I new I had some spare change in my pocket.

I entered the first HMV store I saw and walked over to the 'M' section where the CD's were. There were about over a dozen copies of McFly's single. I picked one up and looked at a cover. The photo was of the boys singing in what looked like a blue room. I wasn't too sure exactly where. A studio or someone's garage, maybe.

"Kayleigh?"

I spun round quickly, hiding the CD behind my back. It was Lisa and Angie. I had been caught. They both could tell what I was doing.

"What's that behind your back?" Angie asked.

"Nothing. I have nothing in my hands." I attempted to put the CD back but Lisa had snatched it out of my hands.

I tried to cover up. "Look, it's not what it looks."

"You like McFly, don't you?" Lisa said, smirking.

I sighed. I couldn't lie to them any longer. "Okay, you've found me out. I liked McFly ever since that concert we went to. I pretended that I didn't because I wanted to prove you both wrong. You happy now?"

"You're so silly, Kayleigh, you really are." Angie said and they laughed.

"Besides," Lisa said. "Angie and I saw you walking with Danny earlier on," I felt my cheeks flush. "Is there something going on between you?"

I shook my head. "No," I muttered. "Well at least I don't think there is."

Lisa raised an eyebrow. "You sure?"

"I have been becoming friendly with McFly recently. I keep on seeing them …"

"What about Danny?"

I sighed. "I really don't know," I pursed my lips, thinking about what I was about to tell them. "I think I have some …" I paused once more. I wasn't too sure what I felt apart from my heart was telling me that I had feelings for Danny. "I think I might have fallen for him … maybe."

Lisa nodded and nothing else was said after that. I bought the CD and the three of us walked home together.

As I got home, I walked into the kitchen to find mum was cooking dinner and dad playing snooker with Headband Dan.

"How was your first day your new job?" Mum asked as she saw me.

I took in a deep breath and said casually, "I got fired."

The room fell silent.

"Oh, Kayleigh!" Mum groaned. "How the hell did you get fired?"

Dad put the snooker stick on the table and folded his arms. I shrugged and headed to the stairs but dad grabbed hold of my arm to stop me from walking away.

"We need a full explanation, young lady." Dad said in a harsh tone.

I glanced at Dan who was scooting out the room.

"Kayleigh, I want an explanation right here, right _now_."

"I got into a fight with Chloe Bell from school."

"Tracie's friend?" Mum asked sounding surprised but dad slammed his fist onto the snooker table, making the stick roll of and fall to the floor with a clatter.

"HOW THE BLOODY HELL DID YOU GET INTO A FIGHT?" He hollered.

"She started it. She was the one who started talking to me. She slapped me first."

"Yes, and you could have the decency to ignore her and get on with your work." Mum said, sounding a little less angry then dad it.

"But think about it, Zoe, she looses her temper too easily." Dad grunted.

I glared at him.

"Oh Kayleigh what's the matter with you at the moment?" Mum whined. "You're getting yourself into more fights and arguments then you did when you were little."

"Tell you what," Dad said, cutting across mum. "You're getting _one_ more chance and if you mess that chance up, we're grounding you."

I rolled my eyes. "So what is my punishment for today then?"

"You are not allowed to go to the pier tomorrow afternoon after school."

I frowned. I had already promised Danny that we would meet there.

"Is that clear?"

I said nothing.


	11. Chapter 10

**Thursday 3rd April 2004**

I was sat in the passenger seat in Joe Carr's car. Dad insisted Joe Carr to drive me into school as he didn't trust me.

"So," Joe Carr started to say as we left our drive. "I heard you got fired on your first day at Burger King because you got into a fight, am I wrong?"

"And that's what my dad told you, wasn't it?" I asked harshly.

"Well, to be honest, your father says _a lot_ of things to me about you. You probably don't know _half_ of the stuff he says." Joe Carr laughed.

I rolled my eyes. "It's not really that funny."

He stopped laughing and turned down the radio. There was a bit of silence between us before he asked,

"So, you've got any boys in your mind at the moment?"

"No." I replied bluntly.

And that was it. The both of us remained silent for the rest of the car journey.

Joe Carr dropped me off on the road where my school was. I opened the door and climbed out. I said thanks to him as he passed me my guitar and I started to walk up the pavement to the school field. I walked along the field towards the music room. I opened the door and walked up the stairs. Sam, Angie and Lisa were up there and they were already practicing. Sam was sat on a chair watching them. Mr Smallcombe stood up as soon as he saw me.

"Kayleigh, you're finally here!" He said gleefully.

"Sorry for being a bit late, sir." I said as I got my guitar out of its case.

"I've had permission from your teachers that you'll be missing the first two lessons due to rehearsing for the music show tomorrow night."

I shrugged. It wasn't too bad as I had Music first period and I would only be missing French.

"Angie wrote a song for us to perform tomorrow." Lisa said as she passed me a piece of paper which had the music and lyrics to a new song called _Leave It All to Me_. I read through it and nodded. I liked it.

"We've already sorted who will be singing what," Angie said. "Kayleigh, you'll be singing the first verse and the chorus and Lisa will sing the second verse." She went to sit behind the drums.

We rehearsed the song and I instantly fell in love with it. However, by the second run through, Lisa stopped us.

"I don't like the way the music is sounding. Feels like we're missing something."

"You need a bass to it. The music seems to be on one level. I think you need to mix it around a bit more. Experiment with it." Mr Smallcombe suggested.

Lisa looked at me. "Told you we needed a bass."

I looked up at Sam. "What about you?" I asked, ignoring Lisa. He looked at me a little bewildered. "You play the bass, don't you?"

"I did, but I haven't for a while …"

"Can you still read music?"

"Yeah but …"

"Then you'll be fine."

Mr Smallcombe looked at Sam. "Would you like to join their band?"

Sam looked pensive.

"Okay I will." Sam said after a while. He picked up the school's bass from the corner of the room, and we started to play the song once more. Mr Smallcombe nodded his head in approval. It sounded much better.

I was sat on my own in the canteen in the first break, waiting for Lisa and Angie to arrive. The three of us had a History lesson in the next period and for the past three weeks, the class had been preparing for a presentation we had to do about the French Revolution in pairs. I was put with Angie. I waited for the whole fifteen minute break, hoping that Angie would hurry up and bring the costumes and scripts, but she never arrived. Angie and I wanted to do a piece of drama, acting out the French Revolution.

The bell rang and I had completely lost my temper with Angie as she never turned up. I stood up and stormed out of the canteen and into the History classroom where the class had started to settle down in their seats. Lisa was sat at the front with her partner, Samantha, and Angie was sat at the back, already dressed in her costume. She was slouched back in the seat, her arms crossed tightly across her chest, looking somewhat irritated.

"Where the hell were you at break? I waited for you!" I hissed.

Angie said nothing as she took out my costume from a Tesco bag and chucked it lazily at me. I looked at it as it fell to the floor and raised my eyebrows.

"Well that was a little rude." I mumbled. Angie was in a bad mood.

"Are you going to sit down, Miss Slovenia?" Our History teacher asked impatiently.

"Sorry, sir." I said. I quickly put my costume over my school uniform and sat on the table next to Angie.

The lesson went by quicker than I thought it would. Angie stood up and stormed to the front of the classroom when it was our turn. I could hear some people in the class sniggering at our costumes. I could feel my cheeks flush pink a little but Angie still looked irritated.

There was a long pause of silence. I sighed and thought that it would be best if I started. So I started the presentation, talking about what the French Revolution was and how it started. I then started to say about all of the laws they had in the past.

"Okay, I have a rule that I found out at break time today. Similar to what they would have had back then," Angie said and then she looked at me. "One of the rules was, 'Never lie to your best friend pretending you know someone from a band when clearly you made it up because you just want to be _somebody_.'"

I froze, a little confused. I glanced down at Lisa who was glaring at her books, as if she was waiting for it to disintegrate in front of her. Then it hit me.

"Well maybe _some_ people should have a little more faith in their friends instead of believing silly little rumours that they are told." I had instantly guessed that someone must have made Lisa and Angie believe that I wasn't becoming friends with McFly.

The class realised that we were starting an argument as they all went "Oooo." Lisa stood up.

"Another thing they said back then." She said. "Maybe people should stop being so stalker-ish and leave famous people alone instead of clinging onto them." She then looked at Angie. "And perhaps _some_ people should stop getting jealous about their best friend having a boyfriend and bitching about them to others."

The class went "Oooo" again.

"Okay, Miss Levett, sit down now. You're not part of this presentation." The History ordered but Angie cut across him.

"Jealous? How am I jealous of you and Sam?" She snapped.

"Don't try to cover up. I was told everything you said about us at break time."

Just then, Angie picked up a custard pie which was on the desk behind us that the year seven's had baked, and chucked it at Lisa. The custard pie got her on the head and into her hair. The class laughed as Lisa gasped. She paused before storming to the desk and picked up another custard pie.

"Lisa, I wouldn't do that if I were you. You're gonna make it worse." I said calmly.

"Oh really?" Lisa said unsympathetically. "I was told that _you_ were the one who was bitching about me the most!" Lisa then planted the pie onto my face. I felt the anger rush through me as I grabbed another pie and turned to Angie.

"And _this_ is for making me wait all of break for you!" I shouted and shoved it in her face.

"That is enough!" The history teacher shouted and then everyone fell silent, until someone stood up and yelled, "FOOD FIGHT!"

The whole class stood up and started throwing their lunch at one another for a laugh. However, Lisa, Angie and I stopped to watch what everyone was doing till someone picked up three custards pies and chucked them at us. We were soaked with custard and pastry.

Without a word, I picked up a bottle of Ribena from someone's desk and poured it in Lisa's hair. She screamed and then picked up another pie and squished it into my hair.

"Let's not act out the French Revolution with custard pies!" The teacher said, being a little reluctant to stop us but then someone shoved a pie in his face.

Lisa, Angie and I were called to sit outside Mr Hobbs' office. Mum and dad were in his office. The three of us started to giggle at the sound of Mr Hobbs shouting. We then stopped abruptly and looked at one another.

"I'm sorry," Lisa eventually confessed. "I knew you wouldn't bitch about me like that, especially to someone like Jenny and Katy. They came up to me at break and told me that. I've learnt my lesson not to listen to them."

"Yeah, Kayleigh, I'm really sorry," Angie said. "It's just that Jess saw you with Dougie the other day and said how you're forcing him to be your friend and that he doesn't like you. In fact, that doesn't sound like you at all."

I sighed. "I'm sorry too."

"But there's nothing for you to be sorry about, Kayleigh. It was us." Lisa said. I smiled and then put my arms round them.

"I forgive you both. We were all being silly and one argument can never split our band apart. Besides, think about the funny side of it, we had a custard pie fight in history. That's something we don't get to do every day."

"But what will your parents say?" As soon as Lisa said that, the door swung open and mum and dad walked out. Dad looked more furious then mum did. Mum didn't look too bothered.

"We'll talk to you when you get home, young lady." Dad hissed as he walked past with mum. Lisa, Angie and I stood up and walked into Mr Hobbs' office. Angie closed the door behind her and we sat in the three seats in front of his desk.

"I'm not exactly surprised about you, Kayleigh, but Lisa and Angie; I am _appalled_ by your behaviour! That was not like you to have the heart to take the pies that the year seven class did this morning to throw to other people in your class. It's absolutely disgraceful. You are year eleven students. You're supposed to set an example to the younger students!" Mr Hobbs shouted.

"Sir, none of the year seven's saw us do that." Angie muttered.

"Be quiet!" Mr Hobbs sighed and rubbed his forehead, looking exhausted and fed up. "The three of you are staying behind after school for detention tomorrow." He sighed again. "Now get out of my sight."

Ignoring what my parents said to me the night before, I walked to the pier with Lisa and Angie like we did every Thursday after school. All I cared about was meeting Danny. I knew mum and dad were at home waiting for me but I didn't care.

"Danny said that he might be seeing me after school." I said as we reached the pier.

Lisa smiled. "What's this thing about going swimming on Saturday?"

"Dougie said that he and the boys are going swimming at the Lido and he said that I could go with them and bring you two with me."

Lisa shook her head. "I already have plans with Sam."

I looked at Angie who looked down to the ground. We bought ourselves a corn dog each and walked up and down the pier. There were loads of people from school dotted around either outside or in the arcade. As we got further down, I felt my mobile phone vibrate in my pocket. I took it out and put it to my ear.

"Hello?" I said.

"Look to your left. I'll come over."

It was Danny. He must have got my number off Dougie.

Lisa, Angie and I turned to our left and saw Danny walking casually up to us. Some of the girls around watched him walk over to me. Angie squealed.

"Time to take the training wheels off, kiddo." Lisa said and pushed me forward.

Danny smiled broadly and he reached me.

"You alright?" He said as he wrapped his arms around me and pulled me into an embrace. Lisa and Angie walked off to buy some ice cream and Danny and I walked down to the end of the pier. The sky was grey and occasionally there would be a heavy gust of wind. There was so much running through my head: my band, McFly, mum and dad, Tracie, my brothers, James. I didn't know what to do.

"Can I just ask you something?" I asked as Danny nodded. "Why did you want to hang out with me?" I looked at the sea as we stopped at a rail. I could feel Danny's eyes on me. I wanted to know everything.

Danny smiled. "You're not like most girls I've met down here. There's something special about you. And I like your eyes …" Danny stopped and looked down at the sea. He then looked back at me. "Does a guy really have to explain as to why he likes a girl?"

"Pardon?" I said a little shocked. I wasn't too sure if I was hearing correctly.

Danny laughed as he took hold of both my hands and stroked them with his thumb.

"I know we've only just met, Kayleigh, but I would really like to get to know you more …"

"I think I'm gonna be sick." I heard someone say. I turned to my left and saw Jess, Jenny and Katy watching us. Jess was holding up my phone as if she was taking a photo of Danny and I. I paused, pulled my hand away from Danny and put it in my blazer pocket. My phone wasn't there. It must have fallen out.

"There you go," Jess said smugly. "A lovely photo to send to daddy to show what his precious daughter gets up to behind his back."

"NO!" I shouted and ran up to them. I snatched my phone out of Jess' hand. It started vibrating instantly; an incoming call from home. Jess smirked as she walked off with her girlfriends. Lisa and Angie ran up to me, Lisa occasionally looking over my shoulder at Danny who I had left by the rails.

"Hello?" I said as I answered the call.

"Yeah hi, where are you?" It was dad.

"Err, the school football field." I lied.

"Oh really? Then why have I received a photo on my mobile of you and a boy at the pier?" He paused, waiting for an answer but I said nothing. "I love what they've done to the place," Dad sighed. "I want you home in five minutes." He then hung up. Lisa and Angie looked at me sympathetically but I walked on. They followed.

"Hey wait!" Someone called and grabbed onto my arm. I turned round to see Danny. "Where're you going? We've just met up."

"Sorry, Danny, but I have to go home. My dad is furious with me as it is already. I'd love to stay but …"

"Okay before you go, I need to ask you something," Danny said. "On the day before I leave to go back to London; a Saturday; would you and your band sing with us on our last concert?"

I blinked a couple of times. Lisa and Angie gasped with excitement.

"What, you want _us_ to perform at _your_ concert?"

Danny smiled. "And perhaps in the meantime, we could go out sometime?"

"Are you asking me out?" That was the first thing that came to mind.

"Well what is there to make you sat no?" Danny winked.

"Of course. We will meet up!" And with that, Lisa, Angie and I ran off together with pure joy. We laughed all the way home.

"He so wants you to be his girlfriend!" Angie squealed.

I laughed, thinking about everything he said. I then frowned. "What about Jess?" I pondered. "I thought they were flirting with one another."

"Well obviously he doesn't care about her if he wants to meet up with you." Lisa said.

Once I got home, I found no one in the kitchen or the lounge. I heard a cough coming from the conservatory. I hesitated before walking to mum and dad who were sat together on the conservatory sofa, both leaning forward with their elbows resting on their knees. Dad looked up at me and gestured me to sit down. I swallowed hard and sat in a chair opposite them.

"We gave you one more chance, Kayleigh, and this is the last straw. We are grounding you for _six_ weeks." Dad said harshly.

I jumped to my feet. "No!" I shouted. "No wait, dad, you don't understand. You can't ground me now!" Dad shook his head. "Dad, he is the _hottest_ boy of one of the hottest bands ever, and he has asked me out!"

Dad picked up his phone and looked at the photo of Danny and I at the pier, holding hands. "Danny Jones, this was the eighteen year old lad who was groping you."

"Dad we are not _bonding_ here." I hissed.

"Kayleigh, you said that he was sixteen." Mum snapped.

"Okay, I lied about that and I'm sorry."

"It's just to show that you never listen to us, so you're double grounded." Dad said and leaned back in his chair.

"Double grounded?"

"No, he meant triple." Mum said quickly.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I snapped, folding my arms.

"Well you started a custard pie in you lesson, resulting in Mr Hobbs calling us in, and you disobeyed me by going to the pier when I clearly told you not to. So, you can't go out, you can't use your phone and you can't watch TV." Dad paused and then carried on. "Oh, and you can't use the computer."

I narrowed my eyes. "That's four things."

"Shall we go for five?"

I shook my head and stormed upstairs.

Trapped in my own house as if I was in prison. I collapsed on my bed. Grounded for six weeks. I shut my eyes tightly. I was going to perform at their concert no matter what my parents did to me.


	12. Chapter 11

**Friday 4th April 2004**

I woke up by the sound of someone knocking on the bedroom door. My siblings were already out of their beds and once again, I was the last to wake up.

"Kayleigh, get up, you're going be late for school," It was mum. "Make some sound so I know you're awake."

I hesitated and coughed.

"Good, do you want any breakfast?"

I said nothing. There was a moment of silence till I heard mum walk down the stairs. I clambered out of bed and slipped my phone into my blazer pocket.

I heard dad's gruff voice from the other side of the door. "Are you awake Kayleigh?" He paused, waiting for an answer. "Make some sound so I can know that you are."

I coughed.

It was 7:30 that evening and the music concert had already started. Around us were other musicians waiting to go on stage. My band had another forty five minutes till we were due to go on stage in front of the whole school and parents.

"What shall we call our band?" Lisa asked as we sat on a table in the silent canteen, drinking hot chocolate.

Angie shrugged and turned to me, changing the subject. "Are you sure I can't do anything to let your dad know that _we_ were the ones who forced you to come to the pier yesterday?"

"Angie, don't worry about it. My parents have just come over-protected with me ever since I got fired from my first job, so they grounded me because I had disobeyed them," I sighed. "I'm just thankful they allowed me to do this concert."

"My mum still hasn't forgiven you." Lisa said.

I said nothing. I knew I had to do something to apologise to Ms Levett.

"How about _Broken Wings_?" Sam suggested.

We all looked at him.

"Why _Broken Wings_?" Angie asked.

Sam shrugged. "It was just a thought."

"Why not?" Lisa said. "There's nothing else we can think of."

"Suppose so." I sighed.

"So we've christened our band as _Broken Wings _then?"

"It doesn't sound too bad, does it?" Angie asked.

"Well I think it's brilliant. Who's with me?" Lisa said cheerfully as put her hand in the middle of the table.

"I agree." I put my hand on top of Lisa's. Then Sam put his on top of mine and Angie joined in. We all cheered loudly as we raised our hands into the air. Mr Smallcombe laughed as he walked into the canteen.

"Are you ready?"

We all took our last sips out of our hot chocolate and walked towards the school hall, carrying our instruments. Mr Smallcombe said good luck to us and ushered us onto the stage. The pupils cheered as we walked on. At first, I was shocked to hear people from school cheering for us, but I just smiled gleefully as I plugged my electric guitar into the amplifier. Due to the bright lights shining in our faces, I couldn't quite see the audience very well but I was thankful. I glanced over to Sam before walking up to the microphone to introduce our band for the first time.

"Alright guys. You having a good time?" I asked and everyone cheered. "We're _Broken Wings_ and the first song we're going to perform is a song I wrote a week ago called _List of Hatred_. We hope you like it." There was another cheer as we started to play. Not caring if James or anyone else knew I wrote the song about him, I just sang it and enjoyed myself. When the song ended there was a loud cheer and we moved on to performing _Too Close for Comfort_. I could just about see that everyone had their hands raised in the air and were swaying from side to side in unison. Lastly, we sang _Leave It All to Me _and the crowd clapped along to it, ending with a loud cheer. The whole school gave us a standing ovation when we had finished. I looked over at Sam who was laughing. He ran over to Angie, gave her a high-five and ran to Lisa, swung his arm around her shoulder.

"Thank you and good night!" They both chorused together and with that, we all went off stage laughing with pure delight.

"That was the best thing ever!" Angie screamed as we got down to the canteen. Mr Smallcombe who was already down there, laughed.

"Kayleigh, I can't thank you enough for making us do this whole band idea." Lisa said, her smile reaching from ear to ear.

"Well I want to thank Sam for joining us on the last minute." We huddled together in a group hug, screaming in happiness.

That was the best moment in my life by far.

Once the Music concert ended, I walked home with Angie. We were quiet for a bit before Angie said,

"Do you still like Danny?"

I sighed. "I don't know."

"What did he say to you when you walked off with him at the pier?"

"He told me that he liked me."

"Kayleigh, why are you so negative about it? He _likes_ you!"

"And I like him too but, Angie, think about it: we've only just met each other. We need to spend more time with one another if we want to get to know each other a little but more."

Once we reached my house, Angie put her hand on my shoulder.

"Okay, just listen for a moment," She said. "I know that you like McFly and you _do_ have feelings for Danny, but please don't let Jess and the others bring you down. That whole thing about Jess and Danny flirting is rubbish."

I nodded. "What about Harry?" I asked. "I thought you said at the carnival that you wanted him".

Angie looked down to the ground.

I smiled. "Maybe you could go swimming with us on Saturday."

"I thought you're grounded. Your parents won't let you out."

"I'll find a way. Don't you worry, Angie."

I sat on my bed on my own; looking through the _Smash Hits _magazine that mum gave me. In the middle, there were four pages of interviews with each of the McFly boys. I turned to the page with Danny's interview and I started to read. In his interview, he said about what it was like to be the youngest band so far and what it is like in Eastbourne, the 'sunniest' town in England. I then started to read the bit about the sort of girls he liked. He said that most people think that he can pull off loads of girls but he didn't have the confidence to do so, and that it wasn't easy when there were girls chasing him down the street. He said how he usually finds himself going shy and tends to blush a little when he's with hot girls. I remembered when he went a little shy that night at the carnival when I winked at him. I read on.

"_The other night, I and the boys went to a funfair at Links Golf Club and three beautiful looking girls came over to buy some muffins. Harry said that he really liked the black haired girl but the one I really liked was the red haired one. She looked at me and winked in a really friendly way. She walked off and I thought that I would never see her again until we walked into each other later on that evening after my performance. What am I supposed to do next? If anyone knows what to do, please tell me because I haven't a clue!"_

I couldn't quite take it all in.


	13. Chapter 12

**Saturday 5th April 2004**

I took a walk to Eastbourne's Lido with Angie. My family had gone to visit my Grandparents for they day but they had locked me in the house, trusting me to stay inside. However, I climbed out of my bedroom window onto the garage roof and down from there. Angie was stood on the driveway, watching me.

"Your parents really have lost faith in you, haven't they?" She said as I reached her. I said nothing as she passed me my bag which I had kept my towel in. With that, we walked on.

"Do you think it'll be too much if I wore a bikini?" Angie asked as we got halfway there. I looked at her.

"What makes you think that?" I replied. "No one is going to judge you. It'll only be me you and the McFly boys; no one else."

"What about Harry?" Angie continued. "He won't think I'm …"

"Just smile at him and everything will be fine." I said, cutting across her.

It was a clear, sunny day yet there were one or two clouds gliding across the sun. Once we had reached the Lido, I heard Angie taking in a deep breath as we opened the gate. We walked through the empty changing rooms and through to the other side where the outside swimming pool was. Harry and Dougie were already swimming about in the pool. Dougie saw us and waved. Angie breathed in heavily again.

"Here we go." Angie said to me as she put her bag on the side and dived into the pool to join Dougie and Harry. I sighed and saw Danny and Tom standing on the side by the deep end of the pool where they had put their bags. I smiled and started to walk up to them. They both turned round and smiled when I reached them.

"Thought you'd never turn up, Kayleigh." Tom said, smiling broadly. He asked if I was okay and I replied with a nod, asking him the same question. The three of us stood talking for a while till Harry called us over to join them in the pool. Tom ran and bomb dived in.

Danny looked at me. "You going in?" He asked. I smiled as Danny pulled off his plain white t-shirt and jumped in. I quickly stripped down into my swimming costume and followed him.

"Christ, the water's bloody freezing!" Danny said once he came up for air. His hair was stuck to his face.

We spent the afternoon playing about in the pool, playing water polo and just generally talking about everything. Angie and Harry were together for most of the day, watching each other and flirting. Angie blushed quite a bit.

Everyone climbed out of the pool after a while to get dry and start cooking a BBQ. I stayed floating in the middle of the pool, watching everyone, until Danny swam up to me.

"You okay?" He asked.

I smiled. "I'm fine."

"Is your dad okay with what happened on Thursday?"

I shook my head. "My parents have grounded me for six weeks. They told me not to go to the pier but I still did because …" I paused for a moment. "Because I didn't want to let you down."

The corners of Danny's lips curled upwards a little. There was a moments silence before I started to talk again.

"Can I ask you something … again?"

Danny raised his eyebrows. "Be my guest."

I chewed the inside of my lip, my heart pounding under my rips. "My mum gave me a copy of _Smash Hits_ the other day and I read that interview you had …" Danny looked at me. My voice became quieter. "Was that really what you said?"

Danny smiled. "Kayleigh," He started. "Did you listen to anything I said to you on Thursday? Why do you think I want to get to know you a little more?"

I felt my cheeks flush. "Well, I guess that maybe …" I paused in my tracks as Danny took my hands. "Maybe I'm finding it hard to take it in after my recent break up …"

Danny's face was only millimetres away from mine. I thought he was going for my cheek but I felt his soft lips brush against mine. It took me a while to register exactly what he was doing, until I kissed him back. I could feel Danny smiling as he lowered his hands to my waist. I placed my hand on the back of his neck. Danny's kisses were soft, not like James. I could feel his warm tongue against mine.

After a while, Danny pulled away from me, looking somewhat guilty but pleased.

"I better go," He eventually said. "I'll call you later." With that, he turned, swam away and climbed out of the pool, leaving me floating in the middle of the pool, speechless. The butterflies in my stomach were making me feel different. A feeling I haven't felt before. I didn't watch him but I saw Danny from the corner of my eye walking over to where their bags were, picked up his bags, said something to the boys and then walked away.

"He kissed you?" Angie shrieked down the phone, as I told her later that evening. "Oh my God, I'm so happy for you!"

I sighed. "I don't know if it was the right thing to do, Angie." I said. My family were still out. "Are we rushing into this too quickly? I mean, we've only seen each other a few time and we're already kissing."

"Well it's not like you are dating each other. That's just beginners luck, Kayleigh."

"I wonder why he left soon after we kissed though," I pondered. "He did look a little guilty as if he knew he shouldn't have kissed me.

Angie paused. "I don't know why he did that, but he definitely likes you Kayleigh. Just wait till Jess finds out …"

"And Jess will _not_ find out," I said, cutting across her. "You promise me that you won't breathe a word of this to _anyone_. I'll tell Lisa when we next see her."

"I promise."

There was a pause. "Anyway, how was Harry? Did you two get along well? You seemed rather cosy together whenever I saw you."

"He asked for my number."

I smiled. "Anything else?"

"He kissed me on the cheek before we all left," There was another pause. "Anyway, moving on from that, has your parents said anything about the party you want for your sixteenth?"

"They said that because I share a birthday with Tracie, we both have to agree on something together. But because I'm grounded, I don't really know how I'm going to have a party."

"It's worth a try. We've still got McFly concert to perform at too."

"Yeah, and I'm not going to let mum and dad stop me from going to that."

Just then there was a bleep from Angie's phone. "Sorry, got to go Kay. Harry's texting me." Angie said sweetly.

"Already?" I said and laughed. We said bye before hanging up.

I sighed loudly as I heard the front door open.

"We're back!" It was my family.

"Look at what we've bought, Kayleigh!" Mum called. I could hear some panting and the sound of something scratching against the tiled kitchen floor. "It's a new pet dog called Dakota. It's a Pekingese! Come down and see it!"

WHAT!

**END OF BOOK ONE**


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